The Transporation Department is driving down trucking fatalities by restoring trucking standards
American highways have grown measurably safer since President Donald Trump returned to office and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy put commercial vehicle enforcement back at the center of federal policy.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates put 2025 traffic deaths at 36,640. That is still unacceptably high but a 6.7 percent drop from 2024. Early 2026 numbers show highway deaths continuing to slide, with about 7,770 in the first quarter, down 4.3 percent from the same period last year. Fatalities involving at least one large truck have declined by a full seven percent.
Much of that decline owes to the heightened safety standards Sec. Duffy has enforced by shutting down fraudulent trucking schools and removing dangerous, untrained semi-truck drivers from America's highways. More than 20,000 truckers have been taken off the road since mid-2025, including tens of thousands removed for English-proficiency and other violations.
On Aug. 31, Duffy and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced that 110 schools have been ordered shut immediately and about 160 more are being targeted as part of an action covering roughly 270–300 training sites because of fraud in the truck drivers' licensing business.
Earlier federal policy flooded the industry with non-domiciled CDLs for foreign drivers who often lacked language skills, basic competence, or even lawful status. This produced a string of preventable fatal wrecks that highlighted how immigration drives much of America's lack of highway safety.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member