An illegal immigrant from India was sentenced Tuesday to four years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to causing a fiery Southern California semitruck crash that killed three people in October 2025.
Jashanpreet Singh, 21, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Authorities said Singh was driving a semitruck that plowed into slow-moving traffic on Interstate 10 in San Bernardino County, killing three people and injuring several others. The crash was captured on dashcam video and showed Singh did not apply the brakes before impact, according to investigators.
Federal sources indicated Singh crossed the southern border in March 2022 and was released into the United States by the Biden administration, pending an immigration hearing. Toxicology testing later confirmed Singh was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.
Singh obtained a California commercial driver's license in June 2025. In September 2025, federal officials had warned California about compliance issues involving commercial driver's licenses and directed the state to make corrections, including pausing new licenses for non-citizens and reviewing existing ones. Federal officials stated Singh should have been disqualified under an emergency Department of Transportation policy. California officials contended Singh’s license eligibility was based on federally approved employment authorization documents, while federal transportation officials maintained he should have been disqualified under new emergency rules. A restriction on his license was removed on Oct. 15, 2025, after he turned 21. Six days later, the fatal crash occurred.
This incident follows other fatal crashes involving drivers with commercial licenses. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy detailed the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on commercial driver's licenses issued to illegal immigrants. These efforts were prompted by incidents including a fatal Ohio crash involving an Uzbek national who authorities said spoke no English, and the death of a Pennsylvania state trooper struck by a Haitian national holding a Massachusetts commercial driver's license.