Conservative firebrand launches 'TruckSafe Tipline' to report illegal drivers amid spike in highway deaths

Amid heightened concern over highway deaths involving illegal immigrant drivers, conservative firebrand Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is launching a "TruckSafe Tipline" to enable truckers to share concerns about illegals on U.S. roads.

"Indiana is the Crossroads of America and Hoosiers are getting killed because drivers who shouldn't be here in the first place are behind the wheel," Banks said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.

Through the online portal, which is already live, concerned citizens are able to share information about carriers they believe are employing or contracting with drivers who are not legally in the United States, not authorized to drive a truck, or who cannot meet required English-language safety standards.

A spokesperson for Banks' office told Fox News Digital that reports submitted to the TruckSafe Tipline will be reviewed by the senator's staff and shared with the U.S. Department of Transportation and its Office of Inspector General.

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"If you're driving a truck on our roads, you need to be legal, you need to be able to read traffic signs, and you need to follow the law," said Banks. "The TruckSafe Tipline gives people on the ground a way to speak up when they see carriers cutting corners and putting lives at risk."

In an X post, Banks addressed truckers directly, writing, "If you're a trucker or work in the industry and see something unsafe or know of shady carriers hiring illegals, I want to hear from you."

This comes shortly after a driver of a semi-truck at the center of a multi-vehicle crash that left four dead in Indiana was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Indiana State Police said the fatal crash happened Tuesday around 4 p.m. in the area of State Road 67 and County Road 550 East in Jay County, where the truck collided with a van.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News that the driver, Bekzhan Beishekeev, is a Kyrgyzstani national who entered the U.S. via the Biden-era CBP One cell phone app on Dec. 19, 2024, at the Nogales, Ariz., port of entry, and he was released into the U.S. via parole by the Biden administration.

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Beishekeev, 30, was reportedly driving on SR 67 in Indiana when he didn't stop for another slowed semi-truck, swerving instead into oncoming traffic and crashing head-on into a van, killing four people, several of whom were reportedly Amish.

Banks' office remarked that "this was not the first fatal accident caused by an illegal truck driver on Indiana's roads." The office pointed to the death of Indiana National Guardsman Terry Frye last November in a crash that involved a Georgian national who entered the country illegally in 2022.

Just a month before that, Borko Stankovic, an illegal alien from Serbia and Montenegro, caused a multi-car accident that killed a 54-year-old. Despite being in the United States illegally since 2011, the Stankovic owned two trucking companies that received over $36,000 in COVID-19 relief funding.

In October, Fox News Digital reported on Illinois-based trucking executive Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, blowing the whistle on illegal alien commercial drivers not only endangering American roads but also "killing the trucking business."

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Kucharski explained further that, though a heavily regulated industry, illegal alien truck drivers can exploit a "loophole" in the system by obtaining non-domiciled commercial drivers' licenses from sanctuary states. They are then able to outcompete legitimate trucking businesses by charging lower prices, leading to the demise of many American small businesses in the industry.

"American truck drivers are patriots and vital to our country. No one is more outraged about what's happening than them," Banks wrote in another X post, adding, "Shady trucking companies that hire illegals, put lives at risk, and undercut American drivers' wages are the problem. We must hold them accountable!"

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also chimed in on X, writing, "[Sen. Banks] is absolutely right! Too many lives have been lost and this must stop."

"We will crack down on these shady trucking companies and get to the bottom of the crash that killed four members of the Amish community in Indiana," he said, noting, "Stay tuned for more to come on this."