A commercial truck driver accused of making an illegal U-turn that led to the death of three people on Florida's Turnpike in August waived his first appearance hearing Monday and entered a not guilty plea, court records show.
Harjinder Singh is being held in the St. Lucie County Jail after being denied bond on three counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations. Federal and state authorities said Singh, a 28-year-old native of India, was in the U.S. illegally.
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Singh lived in California and wa originally issued a commercial driver's license in Washington state before California issued him one.
The Florida Highway Patrol said Singh attempted to make a U-turn on Aug. 12 from the northbound lanes of the Turnpike near Fort Pierce. A minivan behind Singh's semitrailer couldn't stop and crashed into the truck, killing its driver and two passengers. Singh and a passenger in the truck were not injured.
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Fallout from the crash led to new, stricter federal rules for noncitizens to obtain commercial licenses. That policy was announced Friday by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
In a news conference, Duffy said an audit conducted after the crash showed previous rules weren’t strict enough and a number of states weren’t following them consistently.
He said Singh should have never received a commercial license because of his immigration status.
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That review found that commercial driver’s licenses were improperly issued in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington. But Duffy said the problems were so egregious in California that he is threatening to pull $160 million in federal funding.
Neither Singh's attorney, Natalie Knight-Tai, nor prosecutor David Dodd responded to emails seeking comment on the case. Next up for Singh is a pretrial docket call on Friday in Fort Pierce.
