A 21-year-old semi-truck driver accused of causing a deadly eight-vehicle pile-up in Ontario, California, has pleaded not guilty to charges of gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of drugs.
As per ABC News, prosecutors allege that Jashanpreet Singh, an Indian national, was speeding and impaired when his red semi-truck slammed into stopped traffic on Interstate 10, triggering a fiery chain-reaction crash that killed three people and injured at least three others.
Singh appeared in a Rancho Cucamonga court last week Friday, where he entered a not guilty plea to three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and one count of driving under the influence causing injury.
Singh remains in custody without bail and is due back in court on 4 November, with a Punjabi interpreter to be provided at the next hearing.
Federal authorities have confirmed that Singh entered the United States illegally through the southern border in 2022 and was seeking asylum. He held a California commercial driver’s licence (CDL) issued in June, despite new federal rules introduced in September barring asylum-seekers from obtaining such licences.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has accused California of violating federal law by upgrading Singh’s restricted licence earlier this month, allowing him to drive interstate when he should have been deemed ineligible.
The DOT warned that the state could lose nearly $40 million in federal funding if it continues to disregard the emergency rule.
“This criminal illegal alien from India entered the country illegally at the southern border in 2022 and was released by the Biden administration,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, criticising both state and federal authorities for the oversight.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office pushed back, saying the federal government had “approved and renewed this individual’s employment authorisation multiple times — which allowed him to obtain a CDL in accordance with federal law.”
The victims have been identified as Jaime Flores Garcia, Maria Macias, and Juan Chavez Alvarez, with three others, including Singh, injured in the collision.
“This could have been prevented if somebody had been paying attention — sober,” Officer Rodrigo Jimenez of the California Highway Patrol told ABC.
Federal officials have called the tragedy a “catastrophic failure” of inter-agency oversight, reigniting debate over immigration policy and the enforcement of commercial driver licencing laws.
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