A Somali truck driver barreling the wrong way down a Missouri highway in an 80-ton rig was pulled over for reckless driving and then failed an English proficiency test administered by state troopers.
According to Western Journal, Sgt. Dallas Thompson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol told Fox 2 Now that the Somali national could not read or understand basic road signs required to hold a Commercial Drivers License. The trooper saw the truck in question and conducted a traffic stop on him, Thompson said. The driver was unable to complete the English proficiency test.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy condemned the episode as a stark warning about the consequences of lax enforcement of federal standards. Duffy called the incident disturbing and dangerous.
Thompson explained that Missouri law requires commercial truck drivers to demonstrate English proficiency before they are allowed on the road. This is basic common sense in a nation that relies on interstate commerce and shared roadways: Anyone who drives should be able to understand basic road signs so they dont kill people.
In Missouri, they have to be able to understand English, take the test in English, and pass the road sign test here, the trooper told Fox 2 Now. Yet the driver at the center of this case was not licensed in Missouri at all, but in Democrat-controlled Minnesota.
The trucker works for Cargo Transportation LLC, a company based in Hopkins, Minnesota, now facing heightened scrutiny. Cargo Transportation is under investigation by the Department of Transportation, which has been cracking down on truck drivers who cant read basic road signs.
Federal officials say this is part of a broader effort to restore long-neglected safety standards. In January, the DOT said it has removed more than 11,500 truck drivers who failed English proficiency exams, and shut down 7,500 CDL training schools that did not meet the Trump administrations readiness standards.
That enforcement push traces directly to President Trumps April 2025 executive order, which mandated compliance with an existing but long unenforced federal law requiring truck drivers to be proficient in English. The order reversed a 2016 memorandum by the Obama administration, which abolished the language-proficiency requirement.
For years, that Obama-era rollback effectively invited dangerous shortcuts in the name of political correctness, despite the obvious risks of putting nonEnglish-proficient drivers behind the wheel of 80,000-pound machines. Its absurd that an existing law requiring truckers to be able to read traffic signs in basic English has been ignored, despite the horrific ramifications this has.
The stakes are not theoretical for families driving alongside these rigs on crowded highways. Anyone could be the next victim of a horrific, preventable crash involving an 80,000-pound truck, and it doesnt matter whether you live.
Despite what race-hustling Democrats claim, requiring truck drivers to be able to read road signs is not racist. It is an urgent public-safety issue thats a matter of life and death, and the renewed enforcement under President Trumps second administration underscores how serious leaders should treat the basic duty of keeping American roads safe.
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