Washington D.C. – A semitruck driver is under investigation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration after he allegedly attempted to make an illegal U-turn in St. Lucie County, Florida and crashed into a minivan, killing the three people inside.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy wrote that the driver did not speak English and said that the driver’s legal interactions in Washington, California and New Mexico should have prevented the driver from being on the road.
“This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures. Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles,” wrote Duffy.
Duffy said that the investigation found that the driver was illegally given a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) in Washington in 2023 because CDL’s cannot be given to asylum seekers or people without legal status.
He also said that the driver was given a limited term/non-domicile CDL in California in 2024 and that the driver might have gone through a traffic stop in New Mexico in 2025 without being given an English Language Proficiency test, which is required by federal law. Both instances are still under investigation.
“We will use every tool at our disposal to hold these states and bad actors accountable. President Trump and I will restore safety to our roads. The families of the deceased deserve justice,” wrote Duffy.
Duffy said that the investigation also showed that when investigators administered an English Language Proficiency test, the driver failed and only provided correct responses to two out of twelve verbal questions and could only identify one of fourteen highway traffic signs.
NonStop Local has reached out to the Washington Department of Licensing for comment.
The legal requirement regarding CDLs became increasingly relevant after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April 2025 that declared that drivers who don’t speak English proficiently during traffic stops would be considered unfit for the job and would have their licenses revoked.
Some states still have laws allowing them to issue a specific kind of non-domicile CDL to citizens of foreign countries or residents of other states if they have temporary authorization to be in the United States.
An initial report from Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles on August 16 said that, while the driver was under criminal investigation for deaths caused in the crash, assistance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement determined that the driver had entered the county illegally.
Dave Kerner, Executive Director of the department, said that at the conclusion of the driver’s state charges, he would be deported.
To read the U.S. Department of Transportation press release containing Duffy’s statements on the investigation, click HERE.
