A 21-year-old Indian-origin truck driver has been arrested after he allegedly rammed his semi-truck into multiple vehicles, killing three people and injuring several others, in California on October 21, according to a media report.
The driver, identified as Jashanpreet Singh of Yuba City, has been arrested for driving under the influence of drugs and gross vehicular manslaughter, Fox News reported. Quoting police, the report said Singh never hit the brakes of his truck before slamming into the traffic. It also said that toxicology tests confirmed impairment.
Citing anonymous immigration officials, Fox News reported that Singh had entered the US illegally in March 2022. He was released under the “alternatives to detention” policy of the previous Joe Biden administration, which allows certain migrants to stay in the US while awaiting immigration hearings, it said.
He was not in lawful immigration status, the report said, quoting US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sources, adding that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a request with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department to take custody of Singh.
According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the crash occurred around 1.10 pm when Singh’s rig, moving at high speed, rammed into slow-moving traffic. The impact set off a chain reaction involving eight vehicles — four semi-trucks, two pickup trucks, and two passenger cars.
Eyewitnesses reported a loud explosion-like sound as several vehicles caught fire and debris scattered across the freeway. A hazardous materials alert was issued due to the involvement of commercial trucks.
🚨 Breaking: 21-year-old truck driver Jashanpreet Singh has been arrested for DUI and vehicular manslaughter after a chain-reaction crash on the I-10 in Ontario killed three people and injured four others.
Two victims were burned beyond recognition.
Terrible. pic.twitter.com/f9EUgxG6hJ
— Digital Gal 🌸 (@DigitalGal_X) October 22, 2025
Dashcam footage, verified by investigators and widely circulated on social media, shows Singh’s truck approaching at high speed without braking or swerving before slamming into the vehicles ahead.
Fox News quoted US Attorney for Central California Bill Essayli as saying that Singh was “travelling at a fast rate of speed, and he did not apply his brakes at all”.
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“We are opening an investigation to understand how he obtained a commercial driver’s licence from the state of California as an illegal immigrant. We want to understand if anyone in the DMV is complicit in issuing that driver’s licence to him,” Essayli said.
Three people were pronounced dead at the scene, though their identities have not been released pending notification of families. Four others, including Jashanpreet, sustained injuries ranging from minor to critical. The injured include a mechanic assisting with a tire change. Singh, who was also injured, was taken into custody and booked at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
This is the second such incident since August in which an Indian-origin trucker has been accused of causing a deadly crash in the US. On August 12, Harjinder Singh, 28, allegedly made an illegal U-turn in his tractor-trailer in Florida, causing a deadly crash which killed three people. He faces three counts of vehicular homicide.
Following the incident, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced a pause to all issuances of commercial truck driver work visas. “The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on US roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio had posted on social media. -WITH PTI
