ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. (TNND) — A tractor-trailer driver charged with reckless driving after three people were killed in Virginia reportedly illegally immigrated to the U.S. from Africa in the nineties, federal law enforcement told Fox News.
El Hadji Karamoko Ouattara, 58, was driving on Dec. 22 when his tractor-trailer hit a vehicle that pulled off Interstate 81 in Roanoke County, according to Virginia State Police.
Police said the vehicle ran off the right side of the road and hit a 2025 Honda Odyssey stopped on the right shoulder. Six people were in the vehicle, and three of them died from their injuries, including a 2-year-old.
Ouattara’s charges were upgraded to three counts of involuntary manslaughter on Dec. 29, court records show.
Authorities told Fox News that Ouattara is a naturalized citizen from the Ivory Coast and was eventually able to obtain a green card after entering the U.S. illegally.
The news follows national concern about untrained and illegal immigrant drivers on U.S. roads.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Dec. 1 a crackdown on illegal providers of commercial driver’s license (CDL) test training centers.
“This administration is cracking down on every link in the illegal trucking chain. Under Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, bad actors were able to game the system and let unqualified drivers flood our roadways. Their negligence endangered every family on America’s roadways, and it ends today,” Duffy said in a DOT release. “Under President Trump, we are reigning in illegal and reckless practices that let poorly trained drivers get behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses.”
Duffy took action after Indian national Harjinder Singh allegedly killed three people in August on Florida’s Turnpike after he attempted an illegal U-turn.
Since then, Operation Highway Sentinel, launched by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has led to the arrest of over 100 illegal alien truck drivers on California highways.