""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.""
""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."
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 ignited political disputes between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom and prompted widespread online vitriol targeting Sikhs. California Sikh truckers report a spike in anti-Sikh rhetoric, including slurs and calls to remove immigrants from roads. Many Sikhs work in trucking and related businesses along major routes, and community members emphasize the crash as an isolated incident while urging a fair trial and expressing concern about unfair targeting.
Read at The Mercury News
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