Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom of ignoring federal safety rules and “passing the buck” after a deadly freeway crash in California that killed three people this week.
Appearing on America Reports with Fox News host John Roberts, Duffy said an illegal immigrant truck driver behind the crash was given a commercial driver’s license that should have been denied under new federal restrictions.
“If California had complied with the secretary’s emergency rule and prevented the upgrade of this individual’s driving privileges earlier this month, he would have never been able to get behind his big rig,” the Department of Transportation said in a statement.
The driver, 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh, has been charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence.
Duffy said the tragedy could have been prevented if Newsom’s administration had followed the Department of Transportation’s new emergency rule requiring states to verify legal status before granting commercial driving privileges.
“Had Gavin followed our rules per DOT, this guy would have never been on the road. Three more people would be alive,” Duffy told Roberts.
He continued, “It’s nice to see Gavin tap dance in a tweet, good for him, but the truth is we do set the guidelines by which licenses can be issued. We sent that guidance out. Gavin Newsom said, I’m not going to follow it. I’m going to allow this foreigner to get an upgraded license. That was Gavin Newsom’s choice. The states issue commercial driver’s licenses. We give the guidance, they issue them. I gave the guidance. Gavin Newsom didn’t follow it. And three people are now dead because he refused to follow the rules that come from DOT.”
According to a DOT report released Friday, California unlawfully upgraded Singh’s commercial license just weeks after the new federal rule went into effect.
The restrictions, enacted Sept. 26, require states to verify the legal status of CDL applicants to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining licenses. The report states Singh, an Indian national, was initially issued a restricted CDL on June 27, allowing only intrastate travel.
When the new rule took effect, federal officials warned California about “significant compliance failures” and gave the state 30 days to audit its CDL program and revoke invalid licenses.
Instead, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles lifted Singh’s restrictions on Oct. 15 — his birthday — without enforcing the new verification requirements.
“Gavin Newsom was explicitly warned California’s CDL program was dangerously broken,” the report said. “The USDOT’s emergency rule was issued to explicitly prevent drivers like Singh from getting behind the wheel of commercial motor vehicles.”
Dashcam footage captured the moment Singh’s red semi-truck slammed into an SUV on a California freeway, sparking a fiery chain-reaction crash that killed three people and injured at least four others.
Federal officials said Singh entered the U.S. illegally through the southern border in 2022 and was later released into the country by the Biden administration. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has since filed a detainer request asking local authorities to notify them before Singh’s potential release.
Duffy said the incident underscores the danger of defying federal safety measures designed to keep unqualified drivers off U.S. roads.
“Keep your citizens safe,” he said. “Keep foreigners off the roads, especially those who aren’t trained. Stop giving licenses illegally to people who are not in the country lawfully. Very simple stuff.”