California Gave Truckers Drivers A License To Kill By Keeping Them On The Road Despite Deaths, Report Suggests

Semi-truck drivers with vehicular manslaughter charges in the state of California remained able to operate big rigs on the road only to kill again, according to an investigation from CalMatters.

The outlet examined several cases involving commercially-licensed drivers who retained their licenses despite causing fatal collisions on the road. Not only did these drivers stay behind the wheel but often caused additional deaths with their massive vehicles, the seventh and latest investigation in CalMatters’ “License to Kill” series published on Oct. 19 found.

The report alleged that the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) allowed the perpetrators of this vehicular violence to fall through the cracks.

One victim’s husband, Loren Chow, is involved in an ongoing lawsuit with the California DMV after such a semi-truck driver rammed into his family’s SUV in 2022, causing the death of his 53-year-old wife Jenny Chow, CalMatters reported.

“I would have had my partner still. We’d be a family of four. Jenny would have seen Dylan and Tyler graduate from high school,” Mr. Chow said in the article. “She would have seen so much if only the DMV had done what any person in his right mind would have done, which is to suspend the license.”

In an earlier article in the series published in June 2025, the California DMV alleged that law enforcement agencies and California court systems were at fault for not reporting vehicular manslaughter charges to them, an earlier article in the series from CalMatters reported in June 2025.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles and California Highway Patrol did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Baljit Singh, the semi-truck driver involved in the crash that took Jenny Chow’s life, previously killed a 26-year-old man on a bicycle in a hit-and-run in 2021, yet remained on the road, CalMatters found. However, the California DMV did not take away Singh’s license until 2024, after he was convicted for his crimes, CalMatters reported on Oct. 19. Singh’s nationality and immigration status are unclear.

CalMatters reported on four additional cases involving truck drivers who remained on the road despite history of reckless driving that led to deaths. These drivers had court records with histories of speeding and causing catastrophic collisions yet receiving no suspensions of their license from the DMV, the latest entry in the “License to Kill” series noted.