Jashanpreet Singh, 21, an undocumented immigrant from India, was sentenced Tuesday to four years and eight months in prison for his role in a deadly eight-car pileup on California's 10 Freeway in October 2025. The crash resulted in the deaths of three people and injuries to four others.
Dashcam footage from October 21, 2025, captured the moment Singh's semi-truck collided with a queue of traffic. The semi rammed into a white SUV, pushing it into a red sedan that subsequently erupted in a fireball. The truck then veered across lanes, striking utility vehicles before coming to a stop. Four semi-trucks and four other vehicles were involved in the collision.
Singh, who was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration after being encountered at the California border in 2022, was convicted on three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Toxicology reports indicated no drugs or alcohol were present in his system; prosecutors alleged he fell asleep at the wheel.
US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy criticized the sentence, calling it a "slap on the wrist" in a statement on X. "Five years is a slap on the wrist for KILLING 3 AMERICANS. If California followed the rules, illegal aliens like Jashanpreet Singh wouldn’t be driving 80,000 pound missiles down our roads," Duffy wrote. He added, "We won’t stop until ALL illegal truckers are put out of business and held accountable."
According to the US Department of Transportation, Singh obtained a California commercial driver's license in June 2025, months before the fatal crash. In September 2025, federal officials ordered California to cease issuing new commercial driver's licenses to noncitizens and to review existing licenses due to compliance issues. A restriction on Singh's commercial driver's license was reportedly removed on October 15, 2025, just six days before the crash.
Federal officials stated Singh should have been deemed ineligible for a license under an emergency Department of Transportation policy. Anyone failing to meet the requirements was supposed to have their license revoked.