Sarbjeet Parmar at his arraignment Monday. (Photo: KTVQ)
Amid row over Indian-origin truck driver Harjinder Singh who killed three in a road accident in Florida that was caused by his fault as he took a wrong U-turn, a 2024 case of another migrant driver came to the surface as the driver was charged with negligent homicide.According to documents filed in Yellowstone County District Court, Sarbjeet Parmar, 39 of Buckley, Washington, has also been charged with five counts of felony criminal endangerment. Reports did not specify Parmar’s country of origin but his name suggests he too is possibly from India. Parmar did not plead guilty to the charges and judge David Carter ordered a $10,000 bond. As conditions of bail, the judge also asked Parmar to surrender his passport, local news reports said.Parmar was driving a commercial vehicle pulling a trailer on Dec. 22, 2024 when the vehicle went into the median at mile marker 431, rolled onto its side and entered the oncoming lane of traffic, KTVQ reported. The commercial vehicle then struck a Volkswagen passenger car and a Chevrolet Suburban. The driver of the Suburban, 56-year-old Kevin Wilkerson of Laurel, was killed. Three other occupants of the Suburban and two occupants of the Volkswagen were injured. The investigation of the crash by the Montana Highway Patrol found that Parmar had falsified the Electronic Logbook Device in his vehicle. The device, which records when a commercial driver is off duty, was “manually manipulated,” prosecutors alleged, and the investigators determined Parmar “did not take the required 10 hours of Off Duty or Sleeper Berth as required” during the trip.Parmar initially told investigators that wind had caused the accident. The investigation determined there was no evidence to support that wind caused the crash, and instead the crash was “consistent with that of a drowsy driver.”
