A Suffolk County judge sentenced the driver of a speeding garbage truck that caused a 2023 chain-reaction crash in Hauppauge, killing a West Islip man and severely injuring two other motorists, to 6 months in jail on Thursday.
The parents of the victim, Joseph Kelly, blasted the sentence as woefully inadequate and called on New York State officials to boost sentences for motorists responsible for fatal crashes.
Jaswinder Singh, of Queens Village, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide, two counts of third-degree assault, reckless driving and speeding in June.
“You get to return to your life and family in four to six short months,” Kelly’s grief-wracked mother, Lori Kelly, said through tears and sobs shortly before acting Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski sentenced Singh. “That is not justice. None of us will ever be the same without him. You stole his future and destroyed our lives.”
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDA Suffolk judge sentenced the driver of a speeding garbage truck that caused a 2023 chain-reaction crash, killing a West Islip man and severely injuring two other motorists, to 6 months in jail.The parents of the victim, Joseph Kelly, blasted the sentence as woefully inadequate.Jaswinder Singh, of Queens Village, had pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in June.
Singh, 53, did not address Kelly’s family during the hearing in Riverhead and kept his head down during most of the proceeding. His attorney, Vito Palmieri, of Mineola, told Pilewski that Singh has accepted responsibility and is remorseful for his actions that led to the horrific July 3, 2023, crash. Palmieri declined to comment on the sentence after Thursday’s hearing.
More than a dozen of Kelly’s friends and relatives attended the hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, many wearing dog tags featuring the victim’s photo.
“It’s just a way for us to remember Joe, and I don’t take it off, personally,” said Kelly’s father, John Kelly. “He was just a 24-year-old kid, trying to do the right thing with his life.”
Kelly’s parents described him as big-hearted and hard-working young man, a loyal friend who hated bullies and was fiercely protective of his brothers and friends.
John Kelly said his son planned to move to Arizona to start a roofing and construction business with his best friend.
“Your recklessness has left a hole in our lives and our family every day,” the mourning dad told Singh. “Because of your recklessness, Joey has lost the opportunity to start that business, have a wife and family of his own, and to grow old.”
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Emma Richards said Kelly’s death was not an accident, but the result of negligence by Singh, who she said “ignored the basic rules of safe driving.”
Singh was driving the 19-ton truck from Brooklyn to a business in Bohemia, where it was to be outfitted before being put into service with the New York City Department of Sanitation. The defendant was driving 55 mph in a 40 mph zone when he pulled off the Long Island Expressway at Exit 57 and onto Express Drive South, authorities said.
Singh also failed to stop at a red light at the intersection of Express Drive South and Motor Parkway before he hit the 2019 Honda Accord driven by Kelly.
An investigation into the crash revealed that Singh had pressed the accelerator to the floor and did not hit the brakes until after the garbage truck plowed into Kelly’s Honda.
“The impact was catastrophic,” Richards told the judge. “Joseph Kelly was killed immediately.”
The collision with Kelly’s Honda sparked a chain reaction that left two other motorists severely injured, according to prosecutors. Five vehicles, including a Suffolk County Transportation school bus carrying three toddlers, were damaged in the crash. The bus driver and the children were not injured.
Singh faced up to 1⅓ to 4 years in prison if he had gone to trial and was convicted of the top count of criminally negligent homicide.
“You will do a few months in jail and they you can carry on with your life,” John Kelly said through tears. “You will go home to your family and forget about Joseph Michael Kelly. Not once did you show us any remorse for your recklessness that took the life of our son.”
Michael O’Keeffe covers Suffolk County police and other Long Island law enforcement agencies. He is an award-winning journalist and the co-author of two books,”The Card” and “American Icon.”