Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations under 49 CFR 391.11 require commercial drivers to read and speak English sufficiently for safe operation, a standard applied through state-issued CDLs. The May 2026 Virginia crash involving driver Jing S. Dong, charged with involuntary manslaughter, highlights enforcement gaps noted in Transportation Secretary statements referencing New York State licensing from 2024. Primary records from the Immigration and Nationality Act Section 312 mandate English ability for naturalization, yet audits of state CDL processes reveal inconsistent testing. The Supreme Court decision permitting state-law suits against freight brokers for negligent hiring expands liability exposure for operators, shifting incentives toward documented compliance. Multiple state DMV reports document varying language verification methods pre- and post-2024, with no single dataset isolating non-English speakers as causal factors absent broader crash statistics from NHTSA. Perspectives differ on whether federal oversight strengthens safety metrics or strains interstate commerce through heightened audits, with primary agency guidance emphasizing uniform application over demographic correlations.