Tag: 18066691

ONTARIO, Calif. (KABC) — The semitruck driver charged in a deadly chain-reaction crash on the 10 Freeway in Ontario is due in court Friday.

This comes after the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh. He is facing three counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of DUI causing injury. The drug allegedly involved was not specified by authorities.

Three people, including a Pomona High School basketball coach and his wife, were killed in Tuesday’s crash.

Singh is currently being held on no bail.

The DA’s office says eyewitnesses and dashcam video show Singh traveling at a high speed of rate into stopped traffic along the westbound 10 Freeway in Ontario, causing a chain reaction crash. Eyewitness News obtained dashcam video of the crash.

The Department of Homeland Security also issued an immigration arrest detainer on Singh, who they say entered the U.S. illegally from India in 2022.

According to Department of Motor Vehicles records, Singh did have a valid commercial driver’s license to operate a semitruck.

“Our understanding is he had a valid commercial driver’s license, and we are going to find out,” acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. “We’re going to do an investigation to understand if he committed fraud to get it or if someone at the DMV helped him get it.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is pushing back on claims that California somehow allowed Singh to obtain a license, saying the state “does not determine commercial driver’s license eligibility.”

“The FEDERAL government approved and renewed this individual’s FEDERAL employment authorization multiple times – which allowed him to obtain a commercial driver’s license in accordance with FEDERAL law,” the governor’s press office said in a post on X.

According to the California State Transportation Agency, it says Singh was issued a federal work authorization until 2030, and Singh’s commercial driver’s license is a federal REAL ID, which he was “entitled to receive given the federal government’s confirmation of his legal status.”