Truck driver charged in 2021 fatal bus crash on I-79
State police have filed homicide by vehicle charges against a Canadian man who was driving the tractor-trailer involved in a crash with a bus. the crash killed the bus driver and a student in November 2021 on Interstate 79 in Muddy Creek Township.
Charges were filed Thursday against Karandeep Singh, 30, of Calgary, Alberta, for the death of Lindsay Thompkins, 31, of Aliquippa, Beaver County and a 14-year-old girl, who was among the 13 students from Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Beaver County who were aboard the bus.
The bus rear-ended the truck, which had several engine faults that prevented it from driving at a speed that did not impede traffic on the highway, which has a speed limit of 70 mph, police said in an affidavit.
The truck was driving about 18 miles an hour in the right northbound lane when it was hit by the bus, which was driving about 67 miles an hour, police said. The front of the bus under-rode the rear of the trailer, and the vehicles traveled about 193 feet before coming to a stop, police said.
A warrant will be issued for Singh based on the complaint that charges him with two felony counts of homicide by vehicle, four felony counts of aggravated assault by vehicle and 21 summary violations.
“If he crosses into the U.S., we’ll be able to have him picked up,” said District Attorney Richard Goldinger. “We may never find him, or we may never get him, but we have to at least try to do that for the victims.”
He said extraditing Singh from Canada is a possibility, but he said he has never tried to have someone extradited from there, and he doesn’t know if Canadian authorities would cooperate.
“We don’t know if he’s there,” Goldinger said. Singh’s address in Calgary is his last known address, he added.
If Singh is arrested on the warrant in the United States, the district attorney’s office will seek his extradition from the state where he was arrested, Goldinger said. Singh would then be taken to the Butler County Prison and arraigned on the charges. A hearing on the charges would be scheduled before Slippery Rock District Judge Joseph Nash.
The complaint and affidavit of probable cause filed by police provide details of the crash.
Six citations for operating a vehicle with unsafe equipment allege that the 2007 truck Singh was driving had a damaged brake hose, brakes that were out of adjustment and inoperable, defective brakes, a leaking relay valve and insecurely mounted cab seats. The truck was pulling a loaded flatbed semi-trailer
Another citation alleges Singh was operating the truck so slow that it impeded the normal flow of traffic.
Police said data downloaded from the truck’s engine control module after the crash showed several faults existed at the time of the crash. The faults included a boost power fault that limited the power of the engine, and prevented the truck from traveling at a speed that did not impede traffic.
The problems found with the truck during an inspection by police would have resulted in an out of service order for the vehicle, police said.
The four aggravated assault by vehicle charges were filed for the serious injuries caused to Thompkins, the deceased girl and two other juveniles. None of the students on the bus are identified by name in the complaint.
