Harjinder Singh: Indian Immigrant Trucker Who Killed Three in Florida Crash Failed English and Road Signs Test Despite Getting Licenses from 2 States

The Indian immigrant truck driver accused of killed three people in a crash in Florida while making an illegal U-turn on the highway — performed poorly on English fluency and road sign tests after the accident, the U.S. Department of Transportation revealed.

Harjinder Singh managed to answer only two out of 12 questions correctly on an English fluency test conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration after the April 12 crash. When Singh was tested on highway signs and their meanings, he was able to identify only one out of the four signs presented to him, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said on Tuesday after his arrest last week.

Not Fit to be a Driver

Although Singh — who is suspected of entering the U.S. illegally in 2018 — failed the tests, he had still been issued commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) in both California and Washington state.

“This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.

“Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles.”

Singh is alleged to have caused the deadly crash when he tried to make an illegal U-turn through a highway cut-through marked “Official Use Only,” leaving his large tractor-trailer stretched across the four-lane road. A minivan, unable to stop or swerve, slammed at full speed into the trailer.

All three occupants of the van were killed, while video from inside Singh’s truck appeared to show him unaffected by the tragedy happening outside.

Breaking All Rules

For decades, federal law has required CDL holders to speak English well enough to communicate with others and read traffic signs — a rule that Duffy reinforced with an order issued in May.

In California, CDL exams are offered exclusively in English, while Washington allows them in English, Spanish, Russian, or Serbian-Croatian.

How Singh managed to secure a license under those rules is still unclear, but the DOT stated it plans to investigate.

“We will use every tool at our disposal to hold these states and bad actors accountable. President Trump and I will restore safety to our roads,” Duffy said.

Singh was nearly deported in 2018 after being caught crossing the border, but in January 2019 he was released on a $5,000 bond after telling U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services he was afraid to return to India. He has remained in ongoing immigration proceedings since then.

Singh was denied a work permit during Trump’s first term, but in 2021 under President Biden, he was granted one — a decision that later fueled a social media spat between California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office and the Department of Homeland Security.

According to the DOT, Singh received his Washington CDL in 2023 and his California license in 2024. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals in California on Saturday, facing three charges of vehicular homicide.