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Two of the three victims killed in a fiery semi-truck crash allegedly caused by an illegal alien in Southern California on Tuesday have been identified as an assistant basketball coach and his wife.
The San Bernardino County Coroner’s office identified two of the victims in the crash as 76-year-old Clarence Nelson of Fontana, and his wife, 69-year-old Lisa Nelson, saying both were pronounced dead at the scene.
State senator Susan Rubio said in a Facebook post that Nelson was the basketball coach at Pomona High School in Pomona, California.
“This week, our community was deeply saddened by the tragic incident in the City of Ontario,” Rubio said. “It’s heartbreaking to learn that two of the lives lost were from my district — Pomona High School basketball coach Clarence Nelson and his wife Lisa.”
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“As a teacher, I know how a loss like this ripples through an entire school community,” she continued. “My heart goes out to their families, the Pomona Unified School District, and everyone mourning this tremendous loss.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the school, though officials declined to comment.
The driver, 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh, is an illegal immigrant from India who crossed the southern border in 2022 and was released by the Biden administration; he is now accused of causing the semi-truck crash that killed three people.
According to federal sources, Singh was first encountered by Border Patrol agents in California’s El Centro Sector in March 2022 and released into the interior pending an immigration hearing.
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Authorities say Singh was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after plowing his big rig into slow-moving traffic on the I-10 Freeway in San Bernardino County.
The crash, which was caught on dashcam video, left at least three people dead and several others injured. Police say Singh never hit the brakes before slamming into the traffic jam, citing toxicology tests that confirmed impairment.
DHS sources confirm he is not in lawful immigration status and that ICE has lodged an immigration detainer following his arrest.
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The incident is the latest involving illegal immigrant truck drivers in the U.S.
In a separate case, Harjinder Singh — who crossed the southern border illegally in 2018 — obtained a commercial driver’s license in California and was accused of causing a crash in August in Fort Pierce, Florida, that killed three people.
Officials investigating that wreck said he failed English-language and road sign tests.
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The crash follows the Trump administration’s announcement last week that it would withhold more than $40 million in federal highway safety funding from California for failing to comply with federal English-language proficiency standards for truck drivers.
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Peter D’Ambrosca contributed to this report.