Federal transportation officials are probing whether a Chinese national blamed for a fatal highway pileup in Tennessee this week was illegally issued a New York State driver’s license.
Huang Yisong, 54, was allegedly behind the wheel of a tour bus early Tuesday morning and watching a video on his phone when he rear-ended a tractor-trailer, causing a chain-reaction crash that killed a 31-year-old track driver and injured a dozen others, according to sources and reports.
Now, transportation officials want to know if he should’ve had a license at all.
“It’s outrageous,” a spokesperson for the US Department of Transportation told The Post. “This is exactly why President Trump and [Transportation] Secretary [Sean] Duffy have fought so hard to ensure every truck driver can read our road signs and speak English.
“Our team is already investigating New York’s opaque licensing practices that enable dangerous, foreign drivers to kill innocent Americans,” the rep said.
According to WSMV-TV, the tractor trailer struck by the tour bus hit another 18-wheeler and veered into oncoming traffic on Interstate 40 and struck a Volkswagen Jetta shortly before 6 a.m.
Yisong and the driver of the Jetta suffered minor injuries, the outlet said.
Yisong was arrested by Tennessee Highway Patrol, which did not respond to a request for information on Thursday, while his immigration status was not immediately available.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles denied that the agency wrongfully issued Yisong his commercial driver’s license.
“Let’s be clear: Regulating commercial driver licenses is a federal responsibility,” the spokesperson said. “It is the height of hypocrisy for leaders in Washington to place blame at states for following federal rules.
“This individual presented New York State DMV with valid federal work authorization, including a Social Security Card, prior to receiving a CDL.”
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