Five people are dead — including a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy — because the state of New York handed a commercial driver's license to a man who can't read the road signs he's legally required to obey. A motorcoach driven by Jing S. Dong, a Chinese national turned U.S. citizen, plowed into stopped traffic on Interstate 95 near Quantico, Virginia on Friday, killing five and injuring 44 others.
But sure, let's keep handing out CDLs like party favors at a sanctuary city fundraiser. What could possibly go wrong?
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy didn't mince words. "Local police confirm the driver of this motorcoach — a man from China who became a U.S. citizen — doesn't speak English," Duffy said. He followed up with what should be the most obvious statement in the history of transportation policy: "If you can't be properly trained, read our road signs, or communicate with law enforcement, you have no business driving a bus."
Revolutionary stuff, folks. Apparently we now need a cabinet secretary to explain that bus drivers should be able to read English.
Here's how this happened. Dong obtained his commercial driver's license from New York State in 2024. The bus was traveling from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina when it entered a work zone where traffic had slowed. According to a witness, "It just comes flying up beside us, barely missed us. He's in the ditch." The motorcoach didn't slow down. It just barreled into stopped vehicles like the driver had no idea what was happening around him.
Because he probably didn't.
This isn't even a new problem. A prior audit found that over half of New York's immigrant commercial driver's licenses were issued illegally. Over half. And this wasn't some closely guarded secret — it was an audit finding that apparently nobody in Albany thought was worth addressing before children started dying on the interstate.
There was a similar incident back in December involving another driver with the same profile. New York's response? Keep the assembly line running.
Now Duffy is warning that New York could lose $73 million in federal highway funds over their licensing practices. Good. Take every dime. A state that knowingly issues commercial licenses to people who cannot read "STOP" or "WRONG WAY" or "WORK ZONE AHEAD" has forfeited its right to federal transportation dollars.
Five families are shattered. Two of the dead are children who should be starting summer vacation right now. And the bureaucrats who made this possible will face exactly zero consequences — because in progressive America, the only thing more sacred than public safety is making sure nobody's feelings get hurt by a language requirement.
As reported by Breitbart, this is what happens when sanctuary state ideology infects every agency it touches. It's not compassion. It's a body count.