{"id":391065,"date":"2026-09-05T04:44:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T04:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391065\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T04:44:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T04:44:42","slug":"dot-shuts-down-110-truck-schools-over-english-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391065\/","title":{"rendered":"DOT shuts down 110 truck schools over English rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Trump Administration is stopping more than 100 truck driving schools from operating, accusing the schools of giving Commercial Driver\u2019s Licenses to people who do not speak English. <\/p>\n

According to the Department of Transportation, the \u201cEnglish\u201d requirement has existed for almost 90 years. However, the administration is more aggressively going after schools after a deadly crash on Florida\u2019s Turnpike<\/a> in St. Lucie County more than a year ago. <\/p>\n

The St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office said Harjinder Singh made an illegal U-turn in a semi-truck then a minivan collided with the truck, killing all three people inside the car. <\/p>\n

According to officials, Singh didn\u2019t pass an English Proficiency Exam after the crash and couldn\u2019t identify various highway signs yet had a commercial driver\u2019s license. Court records show Singh faces three counts of vehicular homicide.<\/p>\n

The Department of Transportation said the removal of 110 CDL schools follows the identification of more than 5,000 drivers associated with those schools who failed English language proficiency tests. According to a press release, the schools were selected after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reviewed roadside inspection records for commercial drivers cited for not meeting English Language Proficiency (ELP) requirements and comparing those drivers with records in the Training Provider Registry to identify training providers, who repeatedly certified drivers who did not meet federal qualification standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to bring safety back to American roadways,\u201d said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. \u201cWe\u2019re not done. We\u2019ve just begun.\u201d<\/p>\n

American Trucking, who has schools in Opa-Locka and Orlando, is one of the trucking schools who were ordered to stop operating earlier this week. Hector Delgado Santiago showed Channel 9 paperwork he paid for classes at the school, but he acknowledged he has trouble speaking English.<\/p>\n

Staff at American Trucking told Channel 9 they\u2019re currently on \u201cpause\u201d after the government\u2019s decision to shut the company down. We also reached out to managers for the company listed on the state\u2019s business records, Magdiel Fernandez and Teresa Cardenas, but we didn\u2019t hear back by publication.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the English-speaking requirement has always been difficult to enforce because \u201chow much English is needed to drive a truck\u201d is a subjective question. According to recommendations, the federal government make broad recommendations but stresses the test should evaluate whether the driver is able to sufficiently communicate with law enforcement officers and to understand highway traffic signs. It also recommends motor carriers ask five questions during an interview to see if a driver could answer questions related to their trip, driver\u2019s license and shipping papers. <\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

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TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The Trump Administration is stopping more than 100 truck driving schools from operating, accusing the schools…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[156354,156353,1060,56979,155294,156352,156356,7249,156355,634,70227,115,139,171,173,172,2647,2684,22136,1045],"class_list":["post-391065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-american_trucking","tag-central_florida_trucking_academy","tag-channel_9","tag-cimarron_boulevard","tag-department_of_transportation","tag-east_usa_trucking","tag-ethan_stein","tag-florida_turnpike","tag-hector_delgado_santiago","tag-local","tag-narcusi_road","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-sanford","tag-trump","tag-trump_administration","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}