WA CDL Trucking School One of 110 Shutdown Over Illegal Driver Allegations

Last year, the Federal Department of Transportation said they shut down nearly 7,500 CDL or trucking schools across the country, due to allegations of giving licenses to improperly trained and even illegal alien drivers.  The push was due to increasing numbers of accidents and fatalities involving undertrained and even illegal alien drivers.

Now, another sweep has shut down 110 more.

 Western WA Driving School Among the New Closures

 DOT released information this week about another round of what are called "emergency" closures of 110 schools, facing various allegations.  Officials said in part, from a statement:

" In the past year-and-a-half, USDOT has knocked over 28,000 drivers off our roads for failing to speak English, forced states to cancel over 30,000 licenses illegally issued to foreign drivers, and purged over 8,000 unqualified training schools from our FMCSA registry."

 The Latest Actions Involve Three Phases

FMCSA stands for Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The three-pronged plan, said Officials, includes the emergency shutdown of at least 110 schools found to have illegally granded CDL licenses to persons who failed proficiency tests, were illegal aliens, and even some who accepted cash or other payments in exchange for a license--without training.

The Department of Homeland Security has, and continues to conduct sweeps of some 200 schools in 23 states along with  HIS and ICE investigations, and the third involves the Department of Justice creating what's called the Joint Task Force Crossroads of America.  It's purpose, says DOT, is to strengthen security on America's highways and border security.

 One of the Schools Closed Was in Kent, WA

Officials did not list specific allegations against each of the 110 schools, but the Fifth Wheel Commercial Driving School in Kent was shuttered.   1 school in Oregon and 1 in Idaho were also shut down,  Texas and Pennsylvania had 13, California 11, 10 in Florida.

In addition 23, online schools with no known physical location were shuttered.