A deadly crash, a divided nation: Why Sikh truckers are now in the crossfire

September 2025, Photography and text for Associated Press

Members of California’s Sikh trucking community say a deadly crash involving one of its own, which triggered heated national debates over immigration, has led to a spike in anti-Sikh rhetoric.

On Aug. 12, Harjinder Singh, an India-born truck driver, made a U-turn on the Florida Turnpike that authorities say caused a crash that killed three people. The crash and subsequent investigations stirred arguments between Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

It also sparked online vitriol denigrating members of the monotheistic religion, who often covet high-paying trucking jobs that allow Sikh men to wear beards, uncut hair and turbans.

“There are a lot of negative comments online,” said Prahb Singh, a truck driver in Riverside, California, who isn’t related to the driver.

None of the people named in this story are in the same family; Singh is a common last name among Sikhs.

“People are saying: ‘Take the towel heads off the streets’ and ’Make our roads safe by taking immigrants off the street,” said Singh, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from India at age 8. “All of this before a judge gives a sentence.”

It was a mistake by a driver, not the whole community.

Prahb Singh, a truck driver in Riverside, California.

Sikhs play major role in US trucking industry

Estimates of the Sikh population in the U.S. range up to 750,000, with the largest concentration in California. Many work in the trucking industry and related businesses, including restaurants and trucking schools along major routes.

“I’ve been talking to a lot of truck drivers, and they’ve been saying, ‘People look at us different now,’” said Sukhpreet Waraich, a trucker who owns an interstate freight carrier in Fontana, California.

A father of three and his family’s breadwinner, he worries about being unfairly targeted. Like other Sikhs, he lamented the Florida crash, calling it a tragedy. But he hopes the driver gets a fair trial and wants people to understand it’s an isolated crash.

“I’ve been driving since 2019. I haven’t got a single ticket,” Waraich said.

The North American Punjabi Truckers Association estimates that the Sikh workforce makes up about 40% of truck driving on the West Coast and about 20% nationwide. No official figures exist, CEO Raman Dhillon said, but advocacy groups estimate about 150,000 Sikh truck drivers work in the U.S. That number could be as high as 250,000, given the high demand for drivers post-pandemic, he said.

Since the fatal crash, the association has received numerous reports of Sikh drivers being harassed. In one instance, Dhillon said, a Sikh man was ejected from an Oklahoma truck stop when he tried to take a shower.

Fatal Florida crash and partisan politics

In Florida, Harjinder Singh faces manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges, and is being held without bond. Florida authorities say he entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018. However, California officials say federal authorities told them he was in the country legally with a work permit when the state issued him a driver’s license.

The Trump administration said Singh should have never received a commercial driver’s license because of his immigration status and because he failed an English proficiency test after the crash. But New Mexico officials released a video of a traffic stop that showed Singh communicating in English with an officer.

DeSantis sent Florida’s lieutenant governor to California to oversee the handover of the truck driver, saying Singh should never have been behind the wheel and calling him a “thug.”

“The sheriff’s job is done by the lieutenant governor,” whose name calling “was very low,” Dhillon said.

Others in the Sikh trucking industry worry about becoming scapegoats in the country’s bitter fight over immigration.

“This is a tragedy; it was an accident, and every Punjabi, every Sikh, feels for the victims’ family,” said Harsimran Singh, CEO of Gillson Trucking in Stockton, California, who is not related to the driver.

“But the way that this case has been handled … has many, many people in my community fear for their future in this country.”