'He is only 28', 'it was his bad luck' - the family and the entire village of Indian-origin trucker Harjinder Singh, who is staring at a potential 45-year jail sentence for allegedly causing a deadly crash in the US, is rallying behind him, calling for a lenient punishment.
A campaign has also been started online to generate support for the 28-year-old driver from Rataul village in Punjab's Tarn Taran district.
Harjinder (28) is facing charges of vehicular homicide in the US for allegedly causing a crash resulting in the death of three people on a Florida highway on August 12, according to a media report. He was driving a tractor-trailer and allegedly took an illegal U-turn.
After the accident, he fled to California but was brought back to Florida following the arrest, the New York Post reported on Thursday.
Dilbagh Singh, one of his relatives, said that Harjinder's family was not in a position to speak anything.
"The family is in shock," he said.
"We are also saddened over the death of three persons in the accident. Similar incidents have taken place earlier as well," Singh told reporters in Tarn Taran.
"His age is 28 years, and if he gets 45 years of jail, then you can imagine what will be the condition of his family," said Singh.
Singh appealed to the Sikh bodies to come forward to provide assistance to Harjinder.
He said that Harjinder had left for the US after mortgaging his land in 2018.
Harjinder's elder brother, Tejinder Singh, lives with his family and their mother in Tarn Taran. Their father is no more, and the family is engaged in farming.
Over a week after the incident, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a pause to all issuances of commercial truck driver work visas.
The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on US roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers, Rubio posted on social media.
Many locals in Rataul village came out in support of Harjinder and called him a hardworking person.
Though they acknowledged that Harjinder committed a mistake, they demanded that the US authorities should not award harsh punishment.
Village sarpanch Jashandeep Singh said they stand with the family and appealed that no harsh punishment be given to Harjinder.
An elderly villager also sought that the US government should show leniency towards Harjinder.
It was his bad luck that such an accident took place, he further said.
Another villager said Harjinder did not do it intentionally. The accidents do take place, he said.
Though it was his mistake to make a U-turn, he should not be awarded any harsh punishment, otherwise his entire life gets ruined, he said.
Shiromani Akali Dal MP from Bathinda, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, has urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to ensure counsellor access was provided to Harjinder, so that his case could be pleaded appropriately.
Meanwhile, a petition on an online platform change.org has been created by a group - Collective Punjabi Youth, calling for a reduced sentence for Harjinder, arguing that the tragic accident was not a deliberate act.
While accountability matters, the severity of the charges against him does not align with the circumstances of the incident, it said. It received over 18 lakh signatures in its support.
Badal has also urged the Centre to take up the issue of the freezing of work visas of all foreign truck drivers by the US following the fatal crash.
"Punjabi and Sikh drivers make up 20 per cent of the United State' trucking industry, with around 1.5 lakh Sikh drivers engaging in trucking in the US. Any mass-level action against them would have a detrimental effect on trucking families and would be discriminatory in nature, considering the fact that Punjabis have built and sustained trucking logistics and trucking networks over decades," she said.
Badal urged Jaishankar to convey to the US government that the Punjabi community had played a vital role in meeting the high demand for drivers and alleviating the stress of driver shortages on American consumers and its economy.
She said accordingly, it should be stressed that a mistake by one driver, which had resulted in a fatal accident, should not be used to punish the entire community.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
