BILLINGS — The driver of a commercial vehicle involved in a fatal crash on Interstate 90 that claimed the life of a volunteer firefighter and EMT has been charged with negligent homicide.
According to documents filed in Yellowstone County District Court, Sarbjeet Parmar, 39, of Buckey, Wash., has also been charged with five counts of felony criminal endangerment.
He was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday afternoon.
Court records state Parmar was driving a commercial vehicle pulling a trailer on Dec. 22, 2024, when the vehicle went into the median at mile marker 431 at about 4 p.m., rolled onto its side and entered the oncoming lane of traffic.
The commercial vehicle then struck a Volkswagen passenger car and a Chevrolet Suburban. The driver of the Suburban, 56-year-old Kevin Wilkerson of Laurel, was killed. Three other occupants of the Suburban and two occupants of the Volkswagen were injured.
Court records state an investigation of the crash by the Montana Highway Patrol determined Parmar had falsified the Electronic Logbook Device in his vehicle.
The device, which records when a commercial driver is off duty, was "manually manipulated," prosecutors allege, and the investigators determined Parmar "did not take the required 10 hours of Off Duty or Sleeper Berth as required" during the trip.
Parmar initially told investigators that wind had caused the accident. The investigation determined there was no evidence to support that wind caused the crash, and instead, the crash was "consistent with that of a drowsy driver."
Wilkerson was a retired Coast Guard veteran and longtime volunteer firefighter and EMT in Joliet.
