Another CA truck crash and two dead kids on Highway 99
A Freightliner Cascadia operated by Amritsar Trans Inc., a five-truck carrier out of Manteca, California, rear-ended three vehicles on Highway 99 near Lodi on May 19, 2026, killing two young men. The driver fled on foot. The carrier sits inside a web of 267 carriers clustered across residential addresses in the same ZIP code, and 10 involuntary revocation actions. The post Another CA truck crash and two dead kids on Highway 99 appeared first on FreightWaves.
Source Lens
Industry Context
Useful background context, but lower-priority than direct platform, community, or operator intelligence.
Impact Level
medium
Use this briefing to decide whether your team needs an immediate workflow, policy, or reporting change.
Key Stat / Trigger
No single quantitative trigger surfaced in this report.
Focus on the operational implication, not just the headline.
Full Coverage
Two young men are dead. One was 16 years old. One was 20 years old. They were sitting in a Kia Forte in the far right lane of northbound Highway 99, south of Harney Lane, near Lodi, California, at approximately 12:20 p. m. on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, slowing to a stop in traffic behind a Nissan Frontier and a Toyota Camry.
A Freightliner Cascadia towing a fully loaded semitrailer came up behind them and did not stop. The California Highway Patrol said the Freightliner crashed into the rear of the Kia Forte. The Kia was pushed into the Frontier. The Frontier was pushed into the Camry.
A heavy-duty wrecker had to lift the big rig off one of the vehicles to access a rear passenger. Five other people were taken to hospitals, including two with major injuries.
An open emergency line captured screaming in the background at the time of the initial report, consistent with CHP’s description of a catastrophic rear-end chain reaction involving four vehicles and an 80,000-pound truck. The driver of the Freightliner was 24-year-old Manvir Singh. He ran. CHP said Singh fled the scene on foot after the crash.
He was taken into custody nearby and booked into the San Joaquin County Jail at 6:35 p. m. on felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and hit and run resulting in death. His bail was set at $185,000. He appeared in court on Thursday. It is currently unknown whether drugs or alcohol were factors. The truck was operated by Amritsar Trans Inc.
, DOT Number 3369665, registered at 1559 United Street in Manteca, California. Five power units. Nine drivers. Unrated by FMCSA. Insured by Southlake Specialty Insurance Company. The carrier’s listed officer is Baljeet Singh. window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag.
defineSlot('/21776187881/FW-Responsive-Main_Content-Slot1', [[300, 100], [320, 50], [728, 90], [468, 60]], 'div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'). defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps. banner1). addService(googletag. pubads()); googletag. pubads(). enableSingleRequest(); googletag. pubads(). collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag. enableServices(); }); googletag. cmd.
push(function() {googletag. display('div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'); }); That is the surface.
Below the surface is where it gets interesting, and where the data that FMCSA, the California DMV, Secretary Duffy, and Administrator Barrs have been fighting about for the last six months becomes uncomfortably relevant to the deaths of a 16-year-old and a 20-year-old on a Tuesday afternoon, 60 miles from Sacramento.
What’s in the carrier profile By the numbers alone, this is not a carrier that screams red flag at first glance. That is part of the problem. The violations that do exist are instructive. Six violations across 11 inspections in the 24-month window ending April 24, 2026.
One speeding violation for 15 or more miles per hour over the posted speed limit, severity weight 10. One false record of duty status that concealed an hour of service limitation violation by improperly using the Personal Conveyance designation, severity weight 7, plus an out-of-service flag.
One HOS property violation for driving more than 11 hours following 10 consecutive hours off duty. One ELD violation for failure to electronically transfer ELD records. One record of a general duty status violation. One vehicle maintenance violation for a flat tire with an audible air leak, also out of service.
Two of those six violations resulted in out-of-service actions. The vehicle out-of-service rate is 20 percent. The driver out-of-service rate is 12. 5 percent. The false RODS violation is the one that matters most for understanding what kind of operation this is.
A driver using Personal Conveyance to hide an hours-of-service violation is not a recordkeeping error. That is affirmative falsification. The driver had been driving for over hours and used the PC status to make it appear the truck was off duty when it was not. That is what 395. 8E1PC-OOS means.
FMCSA treats it as a severity weight 7 violation with an automatic out-of-service because it affects the integrity of the hours-of-service system itself. If your ELD shows Personal Conveyance when the truck is actually running a load, the entire compliance framework is corrupted. That ELD transfer failure is also worth noting in context.
The carrier’s ELD could not transmit records electronically to the roadside officer. That can mean the device does not support the transfer, the software is not updated, or the device itself is noncompliant. FMCSA has just pulled 79 ELDs from the registered list since January 2025 for failing to meet minimum technical requirements.
The question of which ELD this carrier was running and whether it is still on the registered list is one that investigators no doubt review. The officer web 29 carriers, one name window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag.
defineSlot('/21776187881/fw-responsive-main_content-slot3', [[728, 90], [468, 60], [320, 50
Original Source
This briefing is based on reporting from Freightwaves. Use the original post for full primary-source context.
Style
Audience