U.S. halts truck driver visas after Florida crash involving foreign driver

The U.S. government has suspended the issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers and announced new enforcement measures following a deadly highway crash in Florida, officials said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that visas for truck drivers are being paused “effective immediately,” citing an increase in foreign drivers on U.S. roads. He said the trend was “endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the trucking sector has become a “lawless frontier” under previous policies and stated that operators must be able to speak and read English or risk being put out of service.

“If you don’t understand the language, you can’t understand the laws,” Duffy said.

According to Reuters, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has opened an investigation into a Florida crash that killed three people and was recorded on the truck’s dashcam.

Authorities said the driver, Harjinder Singh, was an Indian national who did not speak English and was not authorized to be in the United States.

Singh was accused of attempting an illegal U-turn through an “Official Use Only” access point, blocking traffic and causing a collision with a minivan that left three people dead. Singh has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide.