Truck driver charged in crash that killed Smithfield man
MORGANTOWN – An arrest warrant for negligent homicide has been issued to the driver of a semitruck whom police say caused the crash on the Cheat Lake Bridge in January that sent a Smithfield man’s car into the frigid waters 80 feet below.
Sukhjinder Singh, 37, of New York, was reportedly involved in a series of accidents on Interstate 68 during a snowy afternoon on Jan. 19, Monongalia County Sheriff Todd Forbes said – including the fatal collision that knocked Kavin Lataille’s car off the bridge.
“Based on the findings of the investigation, law enforcement has determined that Sukjinder Singh was operating the suspect tractor in a reckless manner, striking multiple vehicles, including Lataille’s, and driving at speeds unsafe for road conditions,” the sheriff said.
Forbes said Singh’s driving “directly caused the fatal crash that resulted in Kevin C. Lataille’s tragic death.”
Lataille, 59, a Rhode Island native and U.S. Navy veteran who relocated to Smithfield several years ago, had just finished his shift at the Patteson Drive Eat’n Park that day.
Before Lataille left, he called his wife Lisa to tell her he was leaving. She said he knew she’d worry about his commute home in the lashing snow, low visibility and freezing temperatures.
In the hours and days that followed, police and his friends on foot looked for any sign of Lataille. Drone footage revealed a car under the frozen surface of the lake.
On Jan. 26, with the help of multiple first responders from West Virginia and Pennsylvania, a crane hoisted the car back to the bridge roadway.
Lataille was still in the driver’s seat, still wearing his seatbelt.
The accident team, Forbes said, reported that the damage to Lataille’s car was “consistent” with a collision involving such a truck and trailer.
In addition to reports from several eyewitnesses, Forbes said, sheriff detectives and members of the department’s accident reconstruction team viewed video footage showing “a large vehicle sliding on the bridge, throwing snow in the air, and a separate passenger vehicle falling from the bridge into the lake.”
With the assistance of a translator, Singh, who drives for Gurjaap Multani Transport LLC, of Riverside, Calif., reportedly told law enforcement that while he was behind the wheel at the time of the accident, he did not strike any other vehicles or drive recklessly.