A truck driver who could correctly answer two of 12 English questions just killed three people on the Florida Turnpike.
The same rule he couldn't pass has been federal law since the 1930s – Biden just stopped enforcing it.
But Florida shut down 10 CDL schools after one of their graduates killed three people on the turnpike.
Florida Joins the Federal Crackdown on CDL Fraud
The Florida Department of Education announced Tuesday that it ordered 10 commercial driver training schools to immediately stop advertising, recruiting new students, and collecting tuition.
The action followed an Aug. 31 federal announcement that more than 110 CDL training providers nationwide had been pulled from the FMCSA's Training Provider Registry – including 10 right here in Florida.
Those 10 schools were connected to drivers who repeatedly failed federal English-language proficiency requirements.
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Florida Education Commissioner Henry Mack didn't mince words.
"Commercial drivers operate some of the largest vehicles on our highways, and the institutions entrusted with training have a responsibility to meet every standard required to put qualified drivers behind the wheel," Mack said. "When those standards are not met, Florida will act decisively."
The schools must now identify affected students, provide refunds where required, and report their corrective actions to state regulators.
They cannot legally enroll a single new student until they're restored to the federal registry.
This Is What Happens When Nobody Enforces the Rules
The English proficiency requirement for commercial drivers isn't a new idea or a Trump invention.
That law has been on the books since the 1930s.
Biden's administration gutted enforcement of it.
The results were predictable and deadly.
On Aug. 12, a driver named Harjinder Singh attempted an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike at 70 miles per hour.
A minivan drove directly into his trailer.
Three people died.
Singh failed his English proficiency exam after the crash – correctly answering two of 12 verbal questions and identifying just one of four highway traffic signs.
He had failed the written CDL exam 10 times.
And he was still behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound truck.
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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called it exactly what it was: "a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures."
The Florida crash wasn't an isolated incident.
In Ohio in July, a driver from Uzbekistan named Bekhzod Asrarov – who needed Google Translate to talk to state troopers – allegedly killed a 21-year-old college soccer player in a rear-end crash.
He allegedly ripped the dash cam off the truck before police arrived.
In California, a 21-year-old driver from India never braked before rear-ending eight vehicles on the 10 Freeway, killing three and hospitalizing four more.
In 2025 alone, at least 17 fatal crashes and 30 deaths were attributed to unqualified foreign drivers operating commercial vehicles.
Trump and Duffy Are Cleaning Up Biden's Mess
Biden's open border policies flooded the trucking industry with unqualified drivers who couldn't read a stop sign in English.
CDL mills – fraudulent training schools that handed out certifications regardless of whether drivers could read a road sign – proliferated to service that population.
One California school, Platinum Plus Truck Driving School, certified 36 drivers later cited for English violations – including a trainee whose vehicle killed someone in Oklahoma.
An FMCSA investigation found that 40% of the 400 training providers they inspected failed federal requirements – unlicensed instructors, missing classrooms, no adequate training space, and falsified student records.
Trump signed an executive order in April 2025 codifying English proficiency into federal statute – not just regulatory guidance.
Since active enforcement began, more than 30,000 drivers have been placed out of service for English-language violations.
The feds formed the Joint Task Force Crossroads of America – a coalition of DOT, DHS, and DOJ – specifically to dismantle criminal networks operating inside the trucking industry.
Since December 2025, they've removed nearly 7,000 fraudulent training providers from the federal registry.
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Florida isn't waiting for permission.
The American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear put it plainly before Congress in January: "A CDL should represent a promise that the person behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound vehicle is qualified, competent, and accountable."
For years, it wasn't a promise at all.
It was a rubber stamp from a school that didn't care whether their graduates could read a road sign – as long as tuition cleared.
Now Congress has one job left.
Dalilah's Law – named for a 5-year-old girl left in a three-week coma after a commercial truck crash – passed out of the House Transportation Committee in March and would require English testing in English, period, with states that hand out CDLs to illegal immigrants facing federal consequences.
It passed 35 to 26 – every no vote cast by a Democrat.
Think about that the next time you pass an 18-wheeler on the highway.
Sources:
- Kennedy Owens, "Florida blocks 10 CDL training schools after federal regulators remove them from registry," Florida Voice News, September 8, 2026.
- "Multiple CDL violations uncovered in Florida truck crash," Yahoo News/The Trucker, August 2026.
- Rebecca Downs, "'Reeks of Fraud': Sean Duffy Calls Out CDL Tragedy in Ohio," The Daily Signal, July 14, 2026.
- "Feds shut down 110 CDL schools in trucking fraud roundup," CCJ Digital, August 31, 2026.
- "US Transportation Secretary Duffy, Homeland Security Secretary Mullin White House Briefing," U.S. Department of Transportation, August 31, 2026.
- Chris Spear, "Chris Spear to Congress: 'We need stronger enforcement,'" American Trucking Associations, January 22, 2026.
- Rep. Rob Bresnahan, "Bresnahan Backs Crackdown on Illegal CDL Drivers as Dalilah's Law Advances," U.S. House of Representatives, March 18, 2026.
