Dept of Transit cracks down on California, New Mexico, and Washington for failure to ensure truckers speak English

Once Harjinder Singh was arrested and tested for English language proficiency, it turned out that he was unable to speak or read English and had little comprehension of highway traffic signs—signs that, had they been followed, would have saved three lives. He had received his commercial trucking license in both California and Washington state.

"We are not going to tolerate states that don't comply with the rules that come from this department," Duffy said. "And so we are going to, first of all, we've identified several states that have not been in compliance. That would be Washington, California and New Mexico."

Over 1.7 million people signed a petition demanding leniency for the trucker, who has been charged with vehicular homicide in the crash. The petition called him a "Punjabi youth."

Singh was driving an 18-wheeler when he made an illegal U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike, causing a minivan that was behind him to careen into the trailer and become wedged beneath it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio paused all visas for commercial truck drivers seeking to work in the US.

"Those are the three states that have not complied with this rule, which, by the way, this driver in Florida had received a CDL in Washington, California and was pulled over in July for speeding and no doubt, couldn't speak English language and law enforcement in New Mexico did not take his rig out of service," Duffy said.

"So this one driver touched all three states. Based on our review, they are not complying with our rule," Duffy continued. "And so phase one for us, which I'm announcing today, is we are going to give these states 30 days to come into compliance with truck drivers speaking proficiently the English language, or we're going to look at federal funding that they receive under the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program."

Duffy noted that California receives $30 million under that program, Washington $10 million, and New Mexico $7 million. Those amounts would be cut as part of phase 1 if the states refuse to make sure their licensees can speak and read English.

"There are other actions that we can take," Duffy said, "to make sure states comply, and hopefully, in the next 30 days, we won't have to withhold any money from them, but if they don't come into compliance, we will start with withholding this money, and then we will take additional steps to guarantee compliance."