Eastern Freeway police crash truckie Mohinder Singh pleads guilty
In the lead up to the Eastern Freeway tragedy, truck driver Mohinder Singh was abusing a cocktail of drugs and was so tired “he couldn’t even speak”.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The truck driver who hit and killed four police officers on the Eastern Freeway was “drug f..ked”, had slept for just five hours in three days and believed a witch was chasing him, a court has heard.
Mohinder “Matt” Singh, had been smoking ice and cannabis and drank a bottle of bourbon with an unknown woman in a Dandenong motel in days leading up to the April 22 horror crash which killed police officers Lynette Taylor, Glen Humphris, Josh Prestney and Kevin King.
The officers were standing on the side of the freeway after intercepting Porsche driver Richard Pusey.
A day before the crash, Singh told the woman that “when he is driving, he doesn’t know if he is asleep or awake”.
New details of Victoria Police’s darkest day were revealed on Thursday after the 47-year-old pleaded guilty to 10 charges including four counts of culpable driving causing death.
A summary released by the court detailed Singh’s growing paranoia the day before the crash about a “witch” who he said refused to leave the passenger seat of his car and chased him through paddocks.
“He said she wouldn’t leave the car no matter how much he begged,” the woman told police.
She said she noticed Singh had “the nods” the day before the crash and was drifting off to sleep for up to 10 seconds at a time.
“I told him that he had a lethal weapon,” she said. “I told him he would kill someone if he didn’t get some sleep … but he didn’t understand.”
A person who saw Singh on April 22 just hours before the crash described him as “off it”. “I had never seen anyone as drug f..ked in my life. He hadn’t slept,” the witness later told police.
Singh also pleaded guilty to selling drugs — sometimes from the cab of his truck — to various associates between January and April 22. They observed he was so tired “he couldn’t even speak”.
Disturbing details also emerged that several colleagues at his trucking firm, Connect Logistics, raised concerns about Singh’s behaviour and ability to drive after he became lost and disorientated the night before the crash.
Employees said they noticed Singh “wasn’t right” and one man said Singh had admitted to “nodding off for a second or two” while driving.
Witnesses on the Eastern Freeway described Singh as drifting in and out of the emergency lane. One driver was on the phone to his mother and told her: “There’s an idiot in front of me in a truck that can’t stay in his lane. This dude’s going to f..king kill someone.”
Meanwhile, Pusey appeared in court on Thursday where he vowed to fight charges relating to a separate alleged road-rage incident.
The 42-year-old, accused of taunting Leading Senior Constable Taylor as she lay dying following the freeway crash, allegedly stole a set of car keys and assaulted a man in Melbourne in October 2018. He will return to court for a contest mention on December 15.
Pusey also faces a string of charges in relation to the Eastern Freeway tragedy.
Singh will face the Supreme Court for a directions hearing on December 11.
‘Plays one game and ends up dead the next day’: Fears over footy drug culture
The devastated parents of an aspiring AFL player who committed suicide are desperate for authorities to investigate the level of drug taking among local footy clubs.
‘We just want to give her a funeral’: Samantha Murphy’s mum breaks silence with desperate plea
The devastated mother of murdered woman Samantha Murphy says she misses her daughter “more than anything” and just wants to give her a proper funeral.