Wrong-way semi driver couldn’t read road signs, USDOT head says

A semi truck driver drove the wrong way on Highway 61 in Missouri for several miles on Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday night. The driver, who had a Minnesota commercial driver’s license, couldn’t read road signs, Duffy said. Missouri law enforcement stopped the trucker and took the driver out of service, Duffy said. Duffy did not say if officers revoked the driver’s license. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also opened an investigation into the trucking company, Cargo Transportation LLC, he said.

Duffy’s comments came after a social media user’s supposed video of the wrong-way driver went viral. An X user with the handle “BtcLabe” wrote that he encountered the driver near Troy, Mo., heading south in a northbound lane. The truck driver nearly hit him head-on, the user said. He said he notified a trooper, who pursued the semi truck and pulled it over.

Is the incident related to other concerns about truck drivers? The White House in April 2025 issued an executive order declaring intent to enforce an often-ignored federal law requiring truckers to know enough English to read road signs. Duffy recently highlighted that policy in social media posts he shared about a young girl injured in a crash he said was caused by an illegal immigrant truck driver. He urged lawmakers to pass a measure that would block illegal immigrants from holding commercial driver’s licenses. Three Florida residents also died in an August 2025 crash because a trucker who was an alleged illegal immigrant made an illegal U-turn on a highway.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the fatal 2025 crash in Florida.