Five defendants recently were sentenced after pleading guilty for false statements and aiding and abetting related to a false driverâs logbook scheme, the Department of Transportationâs Inspector Generalâs Office announced.
Sukhwinder Singh, Tarsem Singh Pahal, Bhinder Singh Raju, Daljit Singh and Jaspreet Singh were sentenced July 21 in U.S. District Court in Fresno, Calif., for keeping false driverâs logbooks while employed as truck drivers for Nijjar Brothers Trucking of Madera, Calif., DOT-OIG says.
Sukhwinder Singh, the companyâs safety director, was sentenced to six monthsâ home detention and 24 monthsâ probation, according to DOT-OIG; the remaining defendants were sentenced to three monthsâ confinement, three monthsâ home detention and 24 monthsâ probation. In addition, all defendants were ordered not to work in the trucking industry unless approved by the probation office.
During the DOT-OIG investigation, a driver for Nijjar Brothers Trucking caused a four-vehicle collision, killing a father and his 13-year-old son and seriously injuring six others. The driver, Baljinder Singh, had been driving for at least 19 hours, according to DOT-OIG; he subsequently was convicted and sentenced for falsifying his logbook entries and served time in jail. As a part of a sentencing agreement, the owners of the trucking company were required to inactivate their DOT numbers, dissolve the company and each pay a fine of $50,000.
The DOT-OIG investigation was conducted with assistance from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and California Highway Patrol.
