The commercial driver charged in a triple-fatality crash on the Florida Turnpike, Harjinder Singh, had a documented history of failing the necessary exams and training to operate an 18-wheeler, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.
Singh, who is facing three counts of vehicular homicide, reportedly failed the written commercial driver’s license (CDL) exam ten times. Adding to the revelation, Uthmeier stated that Singh also failed a behind-the-wheel training course at a private CDL school in Washington state.
The Florida Attorney General, who is already in litigation against California and Washington over their CDL regulations, vowed that the Washington school would be “hearing from my office soon.”
The deadly crash occurred on August 12th at mile marker 171 of the Florida Turnpike, where the speed limit is 70 mph. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reported that Singh, driving an 18-wheeler, attempted to make a U-turn through a section of the divided highway explicitly marked “official use only.” RELATED: California Arrest Made In Deadly Florida Turnpike U-Turn Crash
The sudden maneuver resulted in a catastrophic collision, captured on video.
A Chrysler Town & Country minivan slammed into the trailer that abruptly blocked its lane. All three occupants of the minivan were killed: a 30-year-old man from Florida City, a 37-year-old woman from Pompano Beach, and a 54-year-old man from Miami. Singh was uninjured and is currently jailed.
Singh, an illegal alien, crossed the Mexico border into California in 2018. Despite this, he obtained a commercial driver’s license in California.
Attorney General Uthmeier has intensified his criticism of CDL programs in California and Washington, demanding the revocation of their program authority and associated federal funding.
He asserts that their regulatory choices, which govern rules set by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, are directly responsible for allowing unqualified drivers on the road.
The incident is the latest in a series of fatal crashes involving truck drivers who recently entered the U.S. Just this past Tuesday on the 10 Freeway in Ontario, California, 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh of India—who Homeland Security says entered the country via the southern border in 2022—was driving an 18-wheeler that caused a rear-end collision with eight vehicles, resulting in three deaths and four hospitalizations.
Homeland Security has since filed an arrest detainer for Jashanpreet Singh in California.
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