Mexican national arrested for driving semi truck without CDL, slamming into school bus in WA triggering 6-vehicle pileup

A Mexican national was arrested Thursday after Washington State Patrol said he caused a six-vehicle pileup on Interstate 5 in Lacey when the car-hauling semi he was driving without a commercial driver's license slammed into the back of a school bus just after 7:00 am on I-5 near Martin Road in Lacey.

Authorities identified the driver as Juan Hernandez-Santos, 40, of Huentitlan, Mexico, and said four people were transported to the hospital with minor injuries. Troopers said there were two adults on the school bus at the time of the crash, but no students were on board.

Troopers said Hernandez-Santos did not have a commercial driver’s license, insurance, or a valid medical card, documents required for the legal operation of a commercial rig. Trooper Kameron Watts described the wreck as involving “a lot of negligence” and said commercial vehicle enforcement officers were dispatched to conduct a full inspection of the truck and the paperwork commercial drivers are required to carry. Troopers also cited speed too fast for conditions and following too closely as contributing factors.

Hernandez-Santos was booked into the Thurston County Jail and charged with a gross misdemeanor count of operating a commercial vehicle without a valid license. The interstate was partially blocked for hours before reopening. Investigators also said the company operating the at-fault semi is based in California.

The Washington pileup comes as federal and state officials intensify scrutiny of the systems that produce and credential commercial drivers, an effort supercharged by a series of high-profile crashes and fraud investigations.

Earlier this year, Harjinder Singh, who crossed the border illegally in 2018 and obtained a Washington and California CDL despite not being able to speak English and failing required tests, was accused of causing a crash in Fort Pierce, Florida, that killed three people. Florida filed a federal lawsuit targeting California and Washington, alleging systemic failures in commercial licensing that, Florida argued, exported roadway danger across state lines.

Those include the San Bernardino County crash in which Jashanpreet Singh, an illegal immigrant released after crossing the southern border in 2022, was arrested after authorities said he killed three people in a fiery I-10 collision while intoxicated. And in Oregon, DHS said Rajinder Kumar, an illegal immigrant from India who entered unlawfully in 2022, was charged after a jackknifed semi blocked Highway 20, leading to a collision that killed William Micah Carter and Jennifer Lynn Lower; DHS said he held a California CDL and received Biden-era work authorization.

In recent weeks, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the removal of nearly 3,000 CDL training providers from FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry for alleged noncompliance, while thousands more were placed on notice as part of a broader review meant to root out “CDL mills” and falsified training records. Separately, Duffy has threatened to withhold more than $30 million in federal highway funding from Minnesota unless the state revokes non-domiciled CDLs that federal auditors determined were issued illegally.

Those enforcement moves followed Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s announcement of a one-day I-40 operation in which DPS and federal partners said they identified 31 illegal immigrant drivers presenting CDLs that could not be verified for lawful presence, most of them issued out of California.

The Washington incident also resurfaces concerns raised by the Skyline CDL scandal, in which a CDL school and an associated testing pipeline allegedly enabled unqualified applicants to obtain commercial licenses through improper practices and bribery schemes.