You are reading

Drunk Driver Who Posed as Passenger in Fatal Richmond Hill Crash Charged With Vehicular Manslaughter

(iStock)

April 26, 2021 By Allie Griffin

An alleged drunk driver who plowed into two cars in Richmond Hill last week—killing a passenger—has been charged with vehicular manslaughter.

Harpreet Singh, 20, allegedly got behind the wheel of a 2018 Honda Accord while intoxicated, ran a red light and struck one car and then another early Wednesday morning. His front-seat passenger, 23-year-old Suraj Kumar, was killed in the crash.

Singh, of 118th Street in Richmond Hill, told police officers at the crash scene that he was a passenger in the car and gave them a phony name of the supposed driver, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.

A witness provided police with a different account, and a subsequent investigation found that Singh— who was unlicensed—was driving the Honda Accord on Atlantic Avenue when he allegedly ran a red light at 111th Street and struck a Ford pick-up truck at around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

He continued driving and moments later crashed into a Mercedes Benz GLA250 on Atlantic Avenue, Katz said.

Responding officers found Kumar with extensive head and body injuries in the front passenger seat of the Honda Accord. He was unresponsive and rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:25 a.m.

Meanwhile, Singh told the officers at the scene of the crash that he had been in the back seat of the Honda during the collisions and gave them a fake name. He also gave the name of a person who didn’t exist as the driver and left the scene to go to the hospital without admitting he was the one behind the wheel, Katz said.

A witness identified Singh as the driver. He was arraigned late Wednesday night in Queens Criminal Court on a five-count complaint charging him with vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting injury or death, criminally negligent homicide, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and driving without a license.

“Without a license and allegedly intoxicated, the defendant had no business getting behind the wheel of a vehicle,” Katz said in a statement. “As a result of that selfish decision, a young man’s life has been cut short and two other motorists are lucky to be alive.”

He is due back in court today and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Disgraced former Queens Council Member Dan Halloran arrested on child porn charges

Former Queens Council Member Dan Halloran, who was convicted in 2014 for his role in two bribery and corruption schemes and served five years in federal prison, is in trouble with the law again.

Halloran was arrested at Miami International Airport on Saturday, March 29, and charged with possessing child pornography and transporting child pornography after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inspected his Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max and an Apple iPad 6th Generation tablet and discovered several videos of suspected child pornography located in a hidden folder album on the phone’s photos application, according to the criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida.

Southeast Queens man convicted of triple murder in 2022 stabbing rampage that killed girlfriend, her son and cousin: DA

A Jamaica man was convicted at trial Tuesday of murder in the first degree and other crimes for the vicious stabbing deaths of his girlfriend, her son and a visiting cousin during a bloody rampage in June 2022.

Travis Blake, 31, of 155th Street, faces up to life in prison at sentencing following the three-and-a-half-week-long trial. The jury deliberated for just two hours before reaching the guilty verdict in Queens Supreme Court.

Op-ed: The crisis facing immigrant gender-based violence survivors

April 2, 2025 By Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, Zeinab Eyega and Yasmeen Hamza

As advocates who have dedicated our careers to achieving gender equity and justice, and as the representative of and service providers for some of the most culturally diverse districts in the country, we know firsthand the importance of ensuring that survivors of gender-based violence receive support that speaks to their specific needs. In Queens, where nearly 300 languages and dialects are spoken and we face the third-highest rate of reported domestic violence in New York State, the call for culturally specific services is urgent—and it is time for us to act.