George Washington Bridge

One Dead, Two Critical After Early-Morning Hit-Run on George Washington Bridge: Police Sources

A truck driver has been charged with DWI after a young man was killed in a hit-and-run on the George Washington Bridge Monday morning, police sources say.

The 25-year-old man was killed and two young women were left in a critical condition after a truck rear-ended their car on the bridge early Monday morning and then drove away.

Police sources told NBC 4 New York that a 25-year-old man, and two women, age 28 and 39, were driving in a car on the westbound lower level of the George Washington Bridge when they were rear-ended by the truck.

Port Authority Police sources said the driver of the truck they believed had hit the car continued on without stopping for about eight miles before police caught up with him at the Vincent Lombardi rest stop near the New Jersey Turnpike.

The 23-year-old truck driver, Simranjeet Singh Sandhu, was arrested at the rest stop after failing a breathalyzer test and was taken into custody in Fort Lee charged with DWI. Sandhu, a resident of Durham, North Carolina, did not immediately face any other charges, though more charges are likely when he is extradited back to New York. 

The driver worked for Markhai Transport, which has had no crashes or violations over the past two years, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administation said. 

Markhai Transport owner Yadwinder Gill said he was sorry to hear about the fatal incident. He said the driver had been with the company since 2016 with no issues. 

“I apologize to the families. Right now I’m trying to find out what happened in the crash," he said.

The deadly crash happened at about 2:20 a.m. Monday near the outbound, lower level entrance of the bridge. It shut down parts of the bridge for more than six hours, with officials undertaking a full accident investigation well into Monday morning.

By 7:30 a.m. police had begun a full search of area highways for a truck with front-end damage. Police say Sandhu blew a .06 during a breathalyzer after he was located at the Vincent Lombardi rest stop. The legal limit for commercial vehicle operators is .04.

The ugly crash had destroyed the car the young victims were traveling in, to the point the Port Authority issued an alert that rubbernecking was causing delays of more than 90 minutes on the bridge as late as 9:30 a.m.

The three victims were taken to Harlem Hospital, where the man from Middlesex County died and the two women were in critical condition.

The fatal crash caused major traffic delays on multiple lanes throughout Monday morning.

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