Several high-profile acts of vehicular manslaughter have captured more of the nation’s attention. Tractor-trailer drivers, negligence, foreign drivers who can’t read English, one of the drunk, and multiple fatalities. Who knew?
I suppose we should have. OTRs are the primary source of logistics for moving goods. There has been a driver shortage for years. One of those jobs Americans don’t want to do, tough, more likely, more jobs than Americans who are willing to do them. That doesn’t mean you bypass all the gatekeepers to fill cab seats, but that’s what has been happening.
At least in states like California, which has done something remarkable. After multiple fatal incidents and threats from the US Government to hold all future transportation funding, the Queen of the Left Coast has opted not to sue and instead comply. With what?
“What our team has discovered should disturb and anger every American,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “Licenses to operate a massive, 80,000-pound truck are being issued to dangerous foreign drivers – often times illegally. This is a direct threat to the safety of every family on the road, and I won’t stand for it. Today’s actions will prevent unsafe foreign drivers from renewing their license and hold states accountable to immediately invalidate improperly issued licenses.”
California just canceled 17,000 illegally issued CDLs.
In a press statement on Wednesday, DOT asserted that state officials admitted to illegally issuing the CDLs “to dangerous foreign drivers,” and that DMV sent notices to the license holders that their license no longer meets federal requirements and will expire in 60 days.
It is not clear which other states were issuing CDLs to non-residents, but they’d be Blue more often than not. California, being the biggest and wokeist, would necessarily have issued more of them, but that’s a guess, not a statistic.
I’m also fascinated by why California didn’t decide to sue the Federal government. They sue them for everything else. Their TDS demands it. But the most recent act of vehicular homicide occurred in California. We shared the cab video. Even gruesome Newsom, whose state is responsible for illegal alien murder, rape, sex trafficking, child labor violations, incompetent forest and fire management costing lives and billions in property loss, the reintroduction of third-world diseases, and the general decline of western civilization, must have been like, huh.
Need that federal money. The optics of protecting all the illegal drivers isn’t good. Might have to let the feds deport them, too. Better let this one slide.
But you can count on this.
The moment they think they can get away with reissuing them, they will. Oops, sorry about your dead family. Someone at DMV must have forgotten to check the applicant’s legal status in the country, or something.
