Truck driver detained by ICE following fatal crash
A truck driver was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following a fatal crash on U.S. Highway 36 in Indiana.
The three-vehicle crash occurred about noon on Wednesday, Feb. 18, in Avon, Ind. According to a news release from the Hendricks County Sheriff’s Office, a Freightliner semi-truck was traveling eastbound on U.S. 36 “when, according to multiple eyewitnesses, it ran the red light” and collided with a northbound Chevrolet pickup truck. The truck then collided with a Chrysler Sebring that was waiting in the left-turn lane. The driver of the pickup truck, 64-year-old Terry Schultz, was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were immediately reported.
Indy Star reported that truck driver Sukhdeep Singh was detained by ICE following the crash.
The Hendricks County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the detainment and said that it is considering charges.
“We are working with the prosecutor’s office regarding possible charges, but nothing has been filed,” a spokesperson wrote in an email to Land Line.
Another crash in Indiana
This is Indiana’s second high-profile truck crash in recent weeks.
The crash occurred at about 4 p.m. on Feb. 3 on Indiana state Route 67 and involved 30-year-old Bekzhan Beishekeev, who received a non-domiciled CDL in Pennsylvania. Four people were killed in the crash.
Beishekeev was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Feb. 5. According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, he is accused of being in the United States illegally and failing to brake for a slowed semi-truck in front of him.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cited the crash as another example of “unfit and unvetted” truck drivers using a non-domiciled CDL to get behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound commercial motor vehicle.
“FMCSA is on-site investigating the carrier who put this unfit and unvetted truck driver behind the wheel of a semi, resulting in the deaths of four Amish men in Indiana,” Duffy posted on the social media platform X. “There MUST be accountability for the community of Bryant, Indiana, who are devastated by the loss of their loved ones.” LL