A Somali national truck driver spent miles barreling the wrong way down Highway 61 near Troy, Missouri, on Wednesday morning, piloting an 80-ton truck directly into oncoming traffic. When troopers finally pulled him over, he couldn't complete a basic English proficiency test or read road signs.
The incident was captured on video showing the truck traveling against the flow of traffic before finally crossing over and heading the right way. The driver was ticketed for driving the wrong way. No arrests were made.
Sgt. Dallas Thompson told Fox 2 Now that the driver "was unable to complete the English proficiency test." and "In Missouri, they have to be able to understand English, take the test in English, and pass the road sign test here." The driver held a commercial driver's license issued by Minnesota. Multiple investigations are now open.
That is the question federal investigators are now trying to answer. US Transportation Security Sean Duffy confirmed that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the US Department of Transportation have both opened investigations into how the trucker obtained his CDL. Duffy shared the video on X:
"We have learned that a truck driver with a Minnesota CDL who couldn't read basic road signs spent MILES driving the wrong way in an 80 TON truck!"
Duffy confirmed the driver has been removed from service.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety has also opened its own investigation, according to The Post. The agency issued a statement insisting that "all CDL applicants in Minnesota must take their knowledge and behind-the-wheel testing in English to demonstrate the ability to safely operate a commercial vehicle." It added that its Driver and Vehicle Services division follows the requirements set by federal rules.
If that's true, something broke down between the regulation and the road. A driver who cannot read a sign telling him which direction traffic flows is not a driver who demonstrated competency in English. The system either failed to screen him properly or someone along the chain looked the other way. The investigations should determine which.
The driver's employer was identified as Cargo Transportation LLC.
This incident did not happen in a vacuum. It landed in the middle of a federal crackdown that has been building for nearly a year. Last April, the Trump administration mandated that all CDL examinations be administered in English. Pressure to enforce the mandate intensified in August after an Indian immigrant truck driver was involved in a crash in Florida that killed three people.
The results of that enforcement push tell their own story:
Fourteen thousand truckers pulled from the road. More than 550 providers shuttered. Those are not small numbers. They represent the scale of a problem that was allowed to metastasize for years before anyone in Washington decided that reading a stop sign in English was a reasonable prerequisite for operating a vehicle that weighs as much as a locomotive.
For years, the trucking industry's labor shortage created pressure to lower barriers to entry. CDL mills flourished. Testing accommodations expanded. The implicit trade was clear: fill the seats now, worry about safety later. The people sharing the highway with these drivers never signed off on that deal.
An 80-ton truck moving at highway speed in the wrong direction is not a policy abstraction. It is a catastrophe waiting for a family in a minivan. The only reason this story involves an investigation and not a funeral is luck.
Duffy framed the broader effort in direct terms:
"We will not stop until America's roads are safe again for families."
The CDL mills are closing. The unqualified drivers are being pulled from service. The English mandate is being enforced. Wednesday morning on Highway 61 showed why every one of those measures was overdue.
Someone handed this man a license and the keys to an 80-ton truck. Investigators need to find out who and make sure it never happens again.
