The roadway horror happened around 3 p.m. Tuesday on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce when the tractor-trailer driven by suspect Harjinder Singh made a hard left turn across the highway and attempted to cross the median through an “official use only” pass, authorities said.
The truck’s trailer blocked all of oncoming traffic’s lanes as it nosed over the median — with footage from inside its cab showing a black minivan driving toward it with no time to stop and nowhere to turn to avoid a collision.
Within seconds, the minivan slammed into the trailer at full speed and became wedged underneath.
Photos from the wreck showed the minivan obliterated — with its contents strewn across the highway after apparently bursting from the van’s side, while the roof was shorn back and crumpled over the trunk in a twisted mess of metal.
Inside the truck’s cab, Singh appeared completely unmoved by the violence unfolding on the highway.
He looked out the cab window and watched as the minivan flew down the highway into the trailer, and when it collided and the truck was sent shuddering, his face remained unchanged as he calmly put his vehicle into park and turned the engine off.
Additional footage from alongside the truck after the wreck — as rescue crews used jacks to lift the trailer from the van and extricate the passengers’ remains — showed Singh standing by and watching the operation with his arms at his side and no expression on his face.
Two passengers in the minivan were killed instantly, while the driver clung to life and was pulled from the wreck. The driver was later declared dead at a nearby hospital.
The victims’ names have not been released, but were confirmed to be a 37-year-old Pompano Beach woman, a 30-year-old Florida City man and a 54-year-old Miami man, Treasure Coast Newspapers reported.
Singh was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and is in Florida custody.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer also was put out for him after it was determined that he’d been in the US illegally since 2018, when he crossed into the country over the Mexican border, CBS12 reported.
It remains unclear what country Singh is originally from.
He had been driving with a California commercial driver’s license.
If found guilty of homicide, Singh will likely serve his sentence in Florida and then be deported.
“Three people lost their lives as a result of his recklessness, and countless friends and family members will experience the pain of their loss forever,” said the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles’ executive director, Dave Kerner.
“Harjinder Singh is in custody on state vehicular homicide charges and immigration violations. He will no longer be able to damage and destroy the lives of Floridians and visitors,” he added, according to CBS 12.
