San Bernardino County and its 24 municipal jurisdictions are on the brink of suffering a second heavy blow as the result of Jashanpreet Singh’s irresponsible wielding of the Freightliner tractor and trailer he was hauling on October 21.
That day, as the 21-year-old Singh was at the wheel of the semi-truck barreling westbound on the 10 Freeway in the number four lane west of the 15 Freeway, he did not brake at all and ran into the back of and obliterated a white Kia Sorento that had been at a full stop for several seconds before the impact and continued with considerable force into the back of a white pickup truck, which careened to the left as the Freightliner continued unabated into the back of another semi-tractor-pulled trailer, the rear of which momentarily lifted into the air upon impact. The only somewhat-diminished momentum of the Freightliner carried it forward as it careened to the right across two lanes of traffic where it ran into the front of a disabled tractor connected to a long flatbed trailer and the back of the service truck in front of the disabled tractor that were in place on the shoulder of the freeway. The disabled tractor’s front hood was draped open forward and appeared to have been clipped and destroyed along with major elements of the truck’s engine in the collision. A man engaged in repairing the disabled truck was severely injured as a result. Both passengers in the Sorrento were killed and pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of a Toyota Tacoma severely injured in the crash was transported to a hospital, where he died.
A 43-year-old driver of a Dodge Avenger sustained major injuries, while a 57-year-old passenger in a Chevrolet 2500 had a minor injury, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Singh survived the crash with only a minor contusion. Based not only on an objective assessment of his condition after the crash but on the analysis of the dashcam footage, Singh was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office charged him with three counts of manslaughter in addition to a driving while intoxicated charge. On October 24, he was arraigned on one count of PC191.5(A)-F: gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated; a count of VC23558-E: causing bodily injury or death; another count of PC191.5(A)-F: gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated; another count of VC23558-E: causing bodily injury or death; another count of PC191.5(A)-F: gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated; another count of VC23558-E: causing bodily injury or death; a count of VC23153(F)-F: driving under the combined influence of alcohol/drugs causing injury; another count of VC23558-E: causing bodily injury or death; a count of PC12022.7(A)-E: great bodily injury on a person; and another count of PC12022.7(A)-E: great bodily injury on a person
a situation in which a collision results in death can be prosecuted as murder, gross vehicular manslaughter or gross vehicular manslaughter. During the hearing before Judge Shannon L Faherty, it was determined that Singh’s skill with English is insufficient for him to engage in a reasonably communicative exchange with the court and that he is in need of an interpreter during future hearings. Judge Faherty entered for him not guilty pleas and denials to the charges against him.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy less than a week after the collision Singh was involved in has indicated he is contemplating withdrawing $160 million in federal funding earmarked for transportation projects based on his disapproval of the way it has allowed drivers like Singh to operate commercial vehicles on its roadways.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles in response to the Sentinel’s inquiries was vague as to Singh’s status as a licensed commercial driver. With regard to how Singh, with his limited skills in English and inability to decipher the California Driver Handbook or certain road signs, was able to obtain commercial licensing, the Sentinel was referred to the California Highway Patrol. California Highway Patrol Spokesman Rodrigo Jimenez told the Sentinel he could not answer questions with regard to Singh’s licensing status at this time.
The Sentinel’s independent examination of the record relating to Singh, whose residence is in Yuba City, indicates that he exploited gaps and inconsistencies between state and federal licensing requirements to originally obtain a commercial license and perpetuated his hold on the license as a result of the State of California’s active resistance to the tightening of licensing requirements for foreign nationals who are present in the United States unregistered and illegally that took place earlier this year. Moreover, extrapolating on partial information that pertains only to Singh’s driving history in San Bernardino County, it appears possible, indeed likely, that the state did not bring to bear its own traffic laws which would have resulted in the Singh’s forfeiture of his commercial license prior to the October 21 fatal collision.
Singh came to the United States in 2022 illegally at the age of 17 and later applied for asylum status to allow him to remain in the United States despite having violated the law by coming across the Mexican border into California undocumented.
Shortly after he arrived, he began driving large two axle vehicles, including stake bed and box trucks. It appears that he was doing so without having first obtained a standard, noncommercial Class C license, the basic licensure for all drivers in California. Without being registered as an alien present in the country, he thereafter obtained a standard Class C license. It was during this time that he first began driving large commercial vehicles. He was doing so without having a commercial Class B license, which applies to 3-axle vehicles weighing over 6,000 pounds or two-axle vehicles with a gross vehicular weight of up to 10,000 pounds and without having a Class A license, applying to any single vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds and semi-trucks.
He began driving semi-trucks without having the requisite Class A license and before obtaining a Class B license. Ultimately, by 2024, the State of California issued him a Class A license, with which he was authorized to drive semi-tractor’s pulling trailers. It is not clear how he was able to obtain that license after having, on numerous occasions, driven vehicles he was not licensed to operate.
San Bernardino County Superiror Court records show that on ten occasions in the last two-and-a-half years he received citations while he was operating a big rig. Two of those matters were dismissed, he was convicted or entered guilty pleas on five and three have yet to be fully adjudicated.
At the Fontana Courthouse, he was acquitted of a charge of violating VC22348(C)-I: operating a vehicle out of its designated lane that was filed against him on April 26, 2023.
On July 11, 2023, September 10, 2024 and October 8, 2024, Singh was charged with violating VC22406(A)-I, exceeding the maximum speed allowable for trucks. In each case he appeared at the Needles Courthouse to answer those charges and was ultimately convicted.
On October 7, 2024, he was charged with violating VC21460(A)-I, riding left of a double yellow line. He answered that charge at the Joshua Tree Courthouse and was acquitted.
On February 27, 2025 he was once more charged with speeding. He appeared in Needles Traffic Court to answer that charge, entering a not guilty plea, and the matter is yet to adjudicated.
On April 18, 2025, he was again charged with exceeding the maximum speed allowable for trucks. He was convicted of those charges in Needles Traffic Court. s
On May 1, 2025 and again on May 26, 2025, he was charged with speeding while operating a commercial vehicle. Both of those matters are being heard in Needles Traffic Court. He is due for trial on the May 1 charge on December 1, 2025 and is to face trial on the second charge on February 17, 2026.
On July 10, he was issued a citation for not having an operator’s license, driving a vehicle for which the registration fees were delinquent and not having evidence of insurance coverage. He failed to appear on that matter at the Fontana Courthouse on October 10 of this year. No bench warrant was issued, but a courtesy notice was sent to his home in Yuba City.
In California, each speeding conviction counts as a single point against a driver’s record. Under California’s regulations, a commercial truck driver who accumulates 6 points in 12 months, 8 points in 24 months or 10 points in 36 months is subject to a mandatory license suspension. Singh’s citations and convictions found by the Sentinel are those heard or adjudicated at courthouses in San Bernardino County only and do not include citations he may have received in any of California’s 57 other counties.
In June 2025, a mere four months ago, at the age of 20, Singh obtained a “restricted, non-domiciled commercial drivers license” with a “K” restriction from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, despite his lack of English language skill and without have demonstrated his understanding of common road signs. The K restriction limited his licensure to driving in-state.
In July, as part of a policy change initiated by the Donald Trump Administration, the federal government began pressing states which had issued commercial driving licenses to individuals in who were undocumented aliens or otherwise in the county illegally to rescind those licenses.
On September 26, the federal government tightened truck driving licensing requirements for all non-U.S. citizens. That policy change included suspending as of that date the issuance of non-domiciled commercial driving licenses. Singh’s commercial drivers license was supposed to be rescinded at that time. The State of California, however, failed to comply with order from the federal government, doing so in some measure because of both Governor Gavin Newsom’s and the Democrat-dominated California State Legislature’s declared intention to resist the Trump Administration’s immigration policy. Had the State of California and the California Department of Motor Vehicles complied with the federal order, Singh’s commercial drivers license would have been rescinded, effective September 26.
On October 15, Singh turned 21. At that point, California, through its Department of Motor Vehicles, automatically eliminated the “K” restriction from his license, such that he was no longer limited to driving in-state.
When the Sentinel queried the Department of Motor Vehicles about whom or what company Jashanpreet Singh was driving for when he was involved in the October 21 fatal collision, what cargo he was hauling at the time of the accident, what substance he was under the influence of at the time of the accident and whether he was licensed to be a commercial driver, the Sentinel was referred to the California Highway Patrol. California Highway Patrol Spokesman Rodrigo Jimenez said he was not authorized to release owner/company information and that he did not have information about what Singh was hauling. Jimenez said that Singh “was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs. We cannot specify [what substance he was under the influence of] due to the ongoing investigation.”
In California, each speeding conviction counts as a single point against a driver’s record. Under California’s regulations, a commercial truck driver who accumulates 6 points in 12 months, 8 points in 24 months or 10 points in 36 months is subject to a mandatory license suspension. Singh’s citations and convictions found by the Sentinel are those heard or adjudicated at courthouses in San Bernardino County only and do not include citations he may have received in any of California’s 57 other counties.
On Sunday, October 26, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, indicating he had been pushed to extremity by what had occurred on the I-10 Freeway in Ontario on October 21, said he was preparing to revoke millions in federal funds for California because the state is illegally issuing commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens.
According to Duffy, California Governor Gavin Newsom has proven intransigent in the face of Department of Transportation rules requiring all 50 states to stop issuing such licenses and review those already issued.
“I am about to pull $160 million from California,” Duffy said. “We also have the option of pulling California’s ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses.”
Newsom’s office said it would have no comment with regard to what a spokesman called Duffy’s “unjustifiable threat.”
The California Department of Motor Vehicles did not respond to requests as to why it had not delicensed Singh in compliance with the September 26 federal order.
The October 21 collision involving Jashanpreet Singh was not the first time California’s lax licensing of foreign truck drivers has been raised as a national safety issue.
In August, three people were killed when the driver of a semi-truck, Harjinder Singh, attempted to perform an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike in St. Lucie County. Harjinder Singh, who is not believed to be of blood relation to Jashanpreet Singh, like Jashanpreet Singh entered the U.S. illegally and obtained a commercial driver’s license from California and one from the State of Washington, according to the U.S. Marshals office.
A nationwide commercial driver’s license audit by the federal government initiated the following week determined that licenses were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.
Subsequently, the State of Florida sued the states of California and Washington over their issuance of commercial drivers licenses to Harjinder Singh. Florida’s attorney general, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, has broadened that legal action to include a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to to prevent California from issuing commercial driver’s licenses to those in the country illegally, asserting it is a matter of public safety.
The lawsuit accuses California and Washington of refusing to comply with federal safety and immigration-status requirements relating to the issuance of commercial driver’s licenses. The suit says both Pacific Coast states “chose to ignore these standards and authorize illegal immigrants without proper training or the ability to read road signs to drive commercial motor vehicles.”
In August, the U.S. government stopped issuing worker visas for commercial truck drivers, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing the change was effective immediately.
“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio stated.
The State Department simultaneously said that the hold was being put in place “in order to conduct a comprehensive and thorough review of screening and vetting protocols used to determine the qualifications for a U.S. visa. As we have seen with recent deadly accidents, foreign truckers can pose risks to American lives, U.S. national security, and foreign policy interests. Ensuring that every driver on our roads meets the highest standards is important to protecting the livelihoods of American truckers and maintaining a secure, resilient supply chain.”
Rubio’s initiative came less than three months after the Trump administration, through the Transportation Department, took steps to enforce the requirement that truckers speak and read English proficiently. According to the Transportation Department, achieving minimal literacy on the part of truck drivers was a necessary element in a program to improve road safety following incidents in which drivers’ ability to read signs or speak English may have contributed to traffic deaths.
In September, when the Transportation Department issued the order to individual states to rescind the commercial driver’s licenses they had issued to non-citizens, it referenced three fatal crashes that federal officials said were caused by immigrant truck drivers. Only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible for commercial driver’s licenses under that mandate. Individual states are also required to verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database before issuing a license. The commercial license remains valid only until the expiration date of the visa.
Duffy said the Transportation Department had carried out a “spot review” of 145 commercial driving licenses issued to foreigners. Of those, he said, 36 should not have been issued. He said four California commercial driver’s licenses issued to foreigners who at the time were in the country legally should no longer be deemed valid, since those four drivers’ work permits are now expired, in at least three cases, more than two years after those expirations, while the truck drivers yet remain in the country illegally. That those individuals are driving trucks and are routinely violating federal law should be a cause for concern, including over whether those drivers are flouting traffic laws in multiple states with the same frequency with which they are disobeying federal immigration law, Duffy said. He gave California 30 days to come up with a plan to comply or lose funding.
Duffy contends that California has unlawfully issued tens of thousands of driver’s licenses to noncitizens. It was not clear whether Duffy’s reference was to commercial licenses alone or if it extended to Class C licenses, the standard license issued to most drivers in the state.
“You have 60,000 people on the roads who shouldn’t have licenses,” Duffy said. “They’re driving fuel tankers, they’re driving school buses, and we have seen some of the crashes on American roadways that come from these people who shouldn’t have these licenses.”
Duffy said that his rationale for withholding $40 million of the $160 million in transportation fund from California is based on it being the only state in the Union that is refusing to enforce English language requirements for truckers. California made a written defense of the practice, saying it would be impractical to enforce such a ban, given that approaching 8 percent of the state’s population does not speak English. Federal Department of Transportation officials have rejected that rationale.
According to Duffy, an investigation undertaken after the August crash in Florida determined that California officials simply “blew off” their duty to enforce the rules that the Trump Administration sought to instituted in July relating to commercial hauling licenses, which were contained in a presidential executive order. Duffy said that just as was the case with Jashanpreet Singh, California had issued Harjinder Singh a commercial license despite his inability to understand English.
Late today, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office announced, “Toxicology reports confirmed none of the substances tested were present in the defendant’s blood at the time the test was rendered. However, the case remains a grossly negligent homicide, and we’ve filed an amended complaint to reflect the new findings.”
The amended the complaint against Singh, alleges four criminal acts. The complaint now entails Count 1, “the crime of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, in violation of Penal Code Section 192(c)(1), a felony,” in which Singh “did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Jaime Flores Garcia while driving a vehicle in the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony, and with gross negligence;” Count 2, “the crime of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, in violation of Penal Code Section 192(c)(1), a felony,” in which Singh, “did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Lisa Nelson while driving a vehicle in the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony, and with gross negligence;” Count 3, “the crime of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, in violation of Penal Code Section 192(c)(1), a felony,” in which Singh “did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Clarence Nelson while driving a vehicle in the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony, and with gross negligence;” and Count 4, “the crime of reckless driving on a highway causing a specified injury, in violation of Vehicle Code Section 23103(a)/23105, a felony,” in which Singh, “drove a vehicle on a highway in willful and/or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property proximately causing a bone fracture to Juan Chavez Alvarez and Tamara Lynn Gay.” and further “personally inflicted great bodily injury upon Alvarez [and] Gay.”
-Mark Gutglueck