After DOT Secretary Sean Duffy called New Mexico authorities "dishonest" and held a press conference threatening to withhold $7 million in federal funding from the state, new body cam footage appears to show driver Harjinder Singh conversing in English.
Singh, the driver at the center of a state v. federal firestorm after a triple-fatal crash on the Florida turnpike killed three, converses with a New Mexico police officer throughout a 30-minute stop for a speeding ticket and Level II inspection.
The raw audio isn't crystal clear, with Singh's idling truck and road noise in the background, but several intelligible exchanges occur between Singh and the officer.
This comes after DOT said Singh was tested by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for English language proficiency and "failed the assessment, providing correct responses to just two of 12 verbal questions and only accurately identifying one of four highway traffic signs." Media reports from Singh's court appearances also state he uses an interpreter.
Along with the body cam footage, New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler issued a statement saying DOT had "mischaracterized New Mexico’s Commercial Driver’s License policy and compliance with federal law related to English Language Proficiency (ELP) testing."
Overdrive reporting had already revealed that Singh had passed his Level II inspection in New Mexico with passable English, and that the state intended to roll out its own ELP test in September.
But Weisler's new statement sheds further light on the interaction between the state and DOT. In a press conference on Tuesday, Duffy and FMCSA Chief Counsel Jesse Elison repeatedly stressed that federal guidance on ELP enforcement has been out since May 20, but New Mexico's Weisler said the state still wasn't totally clear about the guidance.
"While general guidelines were issued, no standardized testing procedure was provided," Weisler's statement said. "When State Police sought clarification, the response received was simply, 'You know when somebody doesn’t speak English.'"
At DOT's press conference on Tuesday, Elison said the ELP assessment, a two-step test, is "only is triggered when there's a challenge to communicate" between the officer and the driver.
Watch the video below and see if it seems like Singh presents a challenge to communicate with the officer. (Start the video around 2:30 to get to the initial interaction.)
NMSP said it "asked several times if additional standardized guidance" on ELP enforcement "would be forthcoming and were told there would not be," according to authorities. NMSP proceeded to develop "its own process to comply with the new requirements," it said.
“This process required careful review and statewide training for our personnel to ensure consistent and fair application” Weisler said. “It was critical that we implement this correctly, both to comply with federal law and to reduce the risk of litigation, as has occurred in other states such as Florida."
Then Weisler directly disputed Duffy, who stated New Mexico, as well as California and Washington, did not provide DOT with their plans to implement ELP enforcement. "That indicates to us there has not been a willingnesss to comply" with enforcing ELP as an out-of-service violation, Duffy said.
“Contrary to statements made at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s press conference this morning by Secretary Duffy, we kept the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) field division in New Mexico informed of our progress with updates on July 24 and again on August 12, 2025,” Weisler said. “This was all prior to our agency becoming aware of the tragic crash that occurred in Florida.”
NMSP said it plans to start enforcing ELP as an OOS violation on September 1, 2025.
The statement went so far as to say that even under the new OOS criteria, they would not have put Singh OOS on the July 3 traffic stop in the video.
"[E]ven if ELP testing had already been in effect, no assessment would have been conducted in this case. Both the federal guidelines and today’s statements" from Duffy and Elison "make clear that ELP assessments are only required when there is a challenge in communication.
"As the video of the traffic stop demonstrates, there were no communication issues between Mr. Singh and the officer. Therefore, there would have been no reason to initiate" ELP assessment.
Duffy and Elison in a press release on Tuesday also said New Mexico "reported placing zero drivers out-of-service for ELP violations and allowed at least seven unqualified drivers already found unable to meet ELP standards" to continue operating.
NMSP responded to that, too, saying "there is no easily accessible way for us to know if a driver has been placed out of service for a previous violation. No automatic alert exists, and such information could only be obtained by manually reviewing numerous documents, something that is neither feasible nor realistic for an officer to do on the side of the road during a traffic stop. To learn more about a driver or their company, an officer must access a specific database and review inspection records from across the nation."
Duffy, in his comments at the press conference, brought up OOS violations as a "flashing red light" that inspectors should follow up on, and Elison likened having an OOS order for ELP violations to having an OOS order for a brake violation, saying no inspector would let that driver go without following up on their brakes.
"The 'flashing red light' Secretary Duffy mentioned merely reflects a company’s overall safety score and is not tied to an individual driver’s record," NMSP said.
Ultimately, NMSP's Weisler sympathized with the victims of Singh's crash and said the state would come into compliance with federal regulations as part of its safety focus.
“The tragic loss of life recently suffered by the people of Florida serves as a painful reminder of why these regulations matter,” Weisler said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families and communities affected by this tragedy. Ensuring the safety of all who travel on our nation’s roadways remains our highest priority, and we are committed to applying these requirements with the seriousness and consistency they demand.”
