The weight of grief hung heavy over the Florida Turnpike in August 2025. A routine drive turned catastrophic when a 28-year-old driver attempted an illegal U-turn, a jackknifed trailer, and a minivan crushed beneath – three lives extinguished in an instant. This tragedy, and others like it, ignited a nationwide investigation into the very foundations of commercial driver licensing.
The Florida crash wasn’t an isolated incident. Just months earlier, a fiery 17-vehicle pileup on a Texas interstate claimed five lives, including two young children. In Alabama, a speeding semi-truck obliterated four vehicles at a red light, leaving two dead and four critically injured. Each collision revealed a disturbing pattern: drivers operating with questionable credentials and, in some cases, a blatant disregard for safety regulations.
Harjinder Singh, the driver responsible for the Florida tragedy, had entered the country illegally years prior and somehow secured a California commercial driver’s license. Investigators discovered he’d been denied a work permit, yet later obtained one. Even more alarming, a basic English proficiency test revealed he could answer only two out of twelve questions correctly and identify a single traffic sign.
The Texas crash exposed another layer of the problem. Solomun Weldekeal Araya, hauling freight for a major online retailer, was found to be intoxicated. But the issues ran deeper than just impaired driving – prior violations, unsafe practices, and a failure to heed traffic signals all contributed to the devastating outcome. Twenty-two charges followed, a testament to the severity of the negligence.
In Alabama, the driver, Andrii Dmyterko, was on his third day on the job and unable to communicate in English, relying solely on Russian. Missing immigration paperwork and a failed skills test further underscored the systemic failures in vetting and training commercial drivers. The scene was a stark illustration of the potential consequences of inadequate oversight.
A chilling estimate emerged: as many as 130,000 truck drivers operating in the United States may be undocumented, with tens of thousands possessing licenses obtained through fraudulent means. This revelation prompted an executive order to strengthen English proficiency enforcement, a critical step towards improving road safety.
The response was swift. By late June 2025, nearly 9,500 commercial drivers were removed from service for failing to demonstrate adequate English skills. Data revealed a disturbing correlation – drivers cited for language violations were involved in crashes at a higher rate than those penalized for speeding or substance abuse.
The federal government didn’t stop there. Threats of withheld highway funding loomed over states with lax licensing practices. California faced a potential loss of $160 million, New York $73 million, Texas $182 million, and Minnesota $30 million, all for failing to comply with federal audits and address improperly issued licenses. California began revoking 17,000 licenses as a result.
Audits painted a grim picture. In New York, over half of the sampled non-domiciled licenses were found to be illegally issued, with licenses routinely extended regardless of immigration status. Similar issues surfaced in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and other states, revealing widespread disregard for established protocols.
The fraud wasn’t limited to bureaucratic failures. Investigators uncovered brazen schemes, like a Washington State CDL school bribing examiners to secure passing scores, even for drivers who never took the test. In Texas, drivers were operating with digitally forged Mexican licenses, obtained through simple online transactions.
States began to fight back. Arkansas passed a law making the possession of a fake commercial driver’s license a felony. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration removed nearly 3,000 non-compliant training providers from its registry and implemented emergency rules restricting non-domiciled licenses to specific visa categories.
These new regulations demanded unexpired passports, valid entry records, and limited license durations tied to visa expiration dates. In-person renewals became mandatory, and states were ordered to halt new issuances until compliance could be verified. Of the 200,000 non-citizens holding commercial licenses, officials estimated only 10,000 would qualify under the stricter standards.
