A devastating crash on Florida’s Turnpike near Fort Pierce has left three people dead and raised serious questions about systemic failures in the trucking industry. On August 12, 2025, authorities say 30-year-old semi-truck driver Harjinger Singh attempted an illegal U-turn at mile marker 170, causing a minivan to collide with the side of his tractor-trailer.
The violent tractor-trailer collision killed a 37-year-old woman from Pompano Beach and a 54-year-old man from Miami at the scene. The minivan’s driver, a 30-year-old man from Florida City, was transported to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital but later died from his injuries.
Charges Against the Truck Driver
Following an investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol, troopers secured an arrest warrant charging Singh with three counts of vehicular homicide. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles described his driving as reckless and “without regard for the safety of others.”
Investigators also uncovered that Singh has been in the United States illegally since crossing the Mexico border in 2018. Despite this, he was able to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License in California, raising questions about oversight in the licensing system. Singh is currently in custody on both vehicular homicide charges and immigration violations.
Why Illegal Maneuvers Like This Are So Dangerous
Commercial truck drivers are expected to follow the highest safety standards. When they deviate, the consequences can be catastrophic. Executing a U-turn in an “official use only” median crossover is one of the most egregious maneuvers a tractor-trailer can make on a high-speed interstate. A fully loaded semi is simply too large and too slow to complete such a turn safely, especially in traffic, making the risk to surrounding motorists unacceptable.
This tragedy highlights a deeper issue: systemic failures in the trucking industry involving training, route compliance, and corporate oversight. Trucking companies are expected to enforce strict safety rules, yet time and again, we see those safeguards ignored in ways that cost innocent lives.
The Challenges of Holding Trucking Companies Accountable
In cases like this, proving fault may not be the hardest part. The greater challenge is ensuring that victims’ families receive full and fair compensation when multiple wrongful deaths and catastrophic injuries stretch insurance coverage thin.
Defense lawyers often turn to comparative fault arguments, suggesting that drivers of passenger vehicles were speeding, inattentive, or failed to avoid an obvious hazard. As seasoned trial lawyers, we counter those tactics with expert witnesses and scientific data, demonstrating to juries just how unreasonable those defenses are in the context of a commercial truck driver’s duties on the road.
By reframing the evidence, we expose the absurdity of shifting blame onto victims when it is the trucking company’s failures—and its driver’s reckless actions—that caused the tragedy.
The Human Cost
At the heart of this case are three lives that should never have been lost. Families in South Florida are now left to grieve loved ones taken in an instant—parents, children, and friends who will never return home. The shock of such sudden, preventable loss radiates outward, leaving entire communities shaken.
Every crash like this has an impact that goes far beyond the headline. Families are now bearing an unimaginable grief because leaders of the trucking industry neglected multiple safeguards. These families deserve justice, and the public deserves roads where safety—not profit or convenience—comes first.
Until the trucking industry fully embraces its duty to protect the traveling public, tragedies like the Fort Pierce crash will continue to devastate lives. The law, and the courts, remain a vital way to demand accountability and push for change.