Oct. 24 (UPI) — A district attorney in Southern California has filed manslaughter and DUI charges against a 21-year-old man in connection with a highway crash that killed three people and injured several others.
Jashanpreet Singh, 21, of Yuba City, was arrested Tuesday after the semi-truck he was driving at a high rate of speed crashed into stopped traffic on the 10 Freeway West near Ontario, Calif.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson filed a four-count complaint Thursday charging Singh with three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and one count of driving while under the influence of a drug causing injury, with great bodily injury and multiple victims enhancements.
Three people were killed and at least three others were injured, at least two seriously, according to the complaint.
One of the deceased victims has been identified in court documents as Jamie Flores Garcia. The other two were identified as Jane Doe and John Doe.
Federal immigration authorities have identified Singh as an Indian citizen and an undocumented immigrant.
Anderson rebuked law enforcement over the crash, which he said “was easily avoidable if the defendant was not driving in a grossly negligent manner and impaired.”
“Had the rule of law been followed by state and federal officials, the defendant should have never been in California at all,” he said in a statement.
The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday said it has lodged an immigration detainer for the suspect. It said Singh entered the United States in 2022 through the southern border and was then released into the country.
It blamed the Biden administration for the crash.
“It’s a terrible tragedy three innocent people lost their lives due to the reckless open border policies that allowed an illegal alien to be released into the U.S. and drive an 18-wheeler on America’s highways,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
The crash comes amid a political immigration fight, with the Trump administration seeking to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
The Trump administration and Republicans frequently blame the previous Biden administration and Democrats.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy rebuked Democrat-run California for failing to “enforce my new rules for obtaining licenses to operate trucks.”
The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat feuding with President Donald Trump, responded that Duffy was manipulating facts “to score cheap political points” as 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,” it said on X.
“State rules and regulations for commercial driver’s licenses must be CONSISTENT with the standards set by FEDERaL law.”
Singh is to be arraigned Friday at the Rancho Cucamonga Superior Courthouse. No bail was set and the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office said it will request the suspect not be granted bail due to the seriousness of the offense and his potential to be a flight risk.