FMCSA Investigates Carrier and Training School After Fatal Crash
Last Wednesday night, on a quiet stretch of U.S. 68 in Brown County, Ohio, 50-year-old Brenda Watson was driving home.
A semi-truck heading the other way tried to pass another vehicle, crossed into her lane, and hit her head-on. She died at the scene.
I didn’t know Brenda Watson, but I know how it feels to lose someone in a moment nobody saw coming. My heart is with her family.
The driver of that semi, Manjit Singh, was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide.
He’s a non-citizen being held on an active ICE detainer, which means federal authorities have flagged him as removable.
That doesn’t tell us how he got here, his visa history, or his entry date. That information hasn’t been released.
What we do know is that he got his commercial driver’s license in California.
Since Singh had his license, we can assume he passed the state’s written test and driving test. But before you can even take those tests for your CDL, you have to complete specific training first.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says FMCSA is investigating the carrier and school where Singh trained.
If the school cut corners, faked the hours, or didn’t provide the training actually required, then Singh could have walked into his state tests without knowing everything he needed to know.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called it out directly, tying the case to the work federal agencies are doing together to secure our roads: the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the White House Fraud Task Force.
My heart breaks for the family of 50-year-old Brenda Watson, who was killed in the horrific crash by a dangerous foreign driver.
Here’s what we know:
*Singh is in jail on an active Homeland Security detainer
*FMCSA is investigating the carrier and the training school where… pic.twitter.com/0qTzvzPzYr
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) September 3, 2026
My hope is that FMCSA finishes this investigation fast, and that they publish what they find when it’s done.
Letting someone behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound truck without making sure they can actually handle it is a devastating failure in public safety.
And it’s going to keep happening until someone is held accountable for it.
Nevada has its own trucking corridors, its own training schools, its own drivers moving freight through our state. We need to know our own system works before something like this happens here.
That means asking hard questions about training standards, about who’s checking the checkers, and not letting agencies quietly close the file once the news cycle moves on.
Brenda Watson deserved to make it home.
Every one of us driving these roads deserves a system that takes licensing and safety seriously, before someone dies.
We can honor Brenda by demanding better.
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