Semi-truck driver arrested for vehicular homicide following fatal Washington crash

According to a WSP press memo, the collision occurred shortly after 7:14 am when three vehicles were traveling northbound on SR-167 just south of SR-18. Traffic ahead slowed, causing the lead truck and a passenger car to stop. Investigators say the semi-truck traveling behind them failed to decelerate, struck the rear of the stopped car, overrode it, and pushed it underneath the lead truck. The car’s engine compartment caught fire, and the driver was killed at the scene. The roadway was blocked for nearly seven hours as crews responded and cleared the wreckage.

WSP identified the deceased as Robert B. Pearson, 29, of Bonney Lake, Washington. The semi-truck driver, Kamalpreet Singh, 25, who was living in Elk Grove, California, was not injured and has been arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, according to the press memo. WSP told The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI that Singh had a commercial driver’s license that was issued in California. Investigators noted that drugs or alcohol were not believed to be factors at this stage, and the cause of the crash remains under investigation.

The fatal Auburn crash comes as Washington and several other states face mounting federal scrutiny over commercial trucking safety and licensing failures. Washington’s Department of Licensing acknowledged last week that it improperly issued 685 commercial driver’s licenses over the past seven years to noncitizens who did not qualify under federal law, a revelation that surfaced amid federal audits and litigation.

The state remains under pressure following the case of Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant who obtained Washington and California CDLs despite allegedly failing required tests and lacking English proficiency, and who is accused of killing three people in a Florida semi-truck crash. Florida has since sought Supreme Court intervention to block Washington and California from issuing CDLs to noncitizens.

The Auburn crash occurred the same day it was revealed that the driver of a semi-truck, who, according to WSP, caused a six-vehicle pileup in Lacey involving a school bus, lacked a commercial driver’s license and had a long criminal record, was later released despite an ICE detainer due to Washington’s sanctuary policies.

In Southern California, Jashanpreet Singh, an illegal immigrant released after crossing the southern border in 2022, was arrested after authorities said he killed three people in a fiery I-10 crash while driving a semi-truck under the influence. In Oregon, DHS said Rajinder Kumar, an illegal immigrant from India, was charged after jackknifing a semi-truck on Highway 20, leading to a crash that killed William Micah Carter and Jennifer Lynn Lower; officials said he held a California CDL and received federal work authorization.

In recent weeks, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the removal of nearly 3,000 CDL training providers from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Training Provider Registry for alleged noncompliance, while thousands more were placed on notice as part of a nationwide effort to root out so-called “CDL mills” and falsified training records.

DHS has also said its law enforcement components have arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants driving commercial vehicles despite having no legal status in the US, including 146 illegal immigrant truck drivers, and 91 illegal immigrants driving 18-wheelers in Indiana. In November, ICE arrested Akhror Bozorov, a criminal illegal immigrant from Uzbekistan wanted in his home country for belonging to a terrorist organization, who was working as a commercial truck driver in Kansas despite having no legal status.

These cases follow the Skyline CDL scandal, in which a CDL school with franchises up and down the West Coast and an associated testing pipeline allegedly used bribery and improper practices to push unqualified applicants into commercial licenses.