Collins claimed that American roads would be safer by taking commercial driver’s licenses away from noncitizens but over the past 25 years, crashes involving truckers for Collins’ businesses killed 5 people and injured more than 50 people. Collins’ threat to public safety ran deeper as he railed against safety features for commercial trucks.
ProPublica: A U.S. Senate Candidate Says Foreign Truckers Are Making America’s Roads Unsafe. His Own Truckers Have Caused Harm. [ProPublica, 5/11/26]
Collins Claimed That American Roads Would Be Safer By Taking Commercial Driver’s Licenses Away From Noncitizens. According to ProPublica, “A Georgia congressman running for one of the country’s most competitive U.S. Senate seats has vowed in social media posts and interviews to make America’s roads safer — by taking commercial driver’s licenses away from noncitizens. ‘If you can’t read English road signs,’ Mike Collins, a Republican, posted on Facebook in April, ‘you don’t belong behind the wheel. Period.’” [ProPublica, 5/11/26]
Collins Was Described As “One Of The Loudest Champions” Of Revoking Licenses From Noncitizen Commercial Drivers. According to ProPublica, “Collins, the owner of a trucking business and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ transportation committee, is one of the loudest champions of the Trump administration’s effort to revoke licenses from nearly 200,000 noncitizen commercial drivers, including thousands of truckers. The Trump administration has pushed the policy forward even though its own officials have written that there’s no empirical evidence to show that foreign truckers cause more crashes than truckers who are American citizens.” [ProPublica, 5/11/26]
Past 25 Years, Crashes Involving Truckers For Collins Businesses Killed 5 People And Injured More than 50 People. According to ProPublica, “Over the past 25 years, crashes involving truckers for Collins’ business killed five people and injured more than 50 people — including one woman who now needs around-the-clock care due to a severe brain injury — according to federal data, court filings, plaintiffs’ attorneys and police records.” [ProPublica, 5/11/26]
Drivers And Passengers Who Were Injured In The Crashes Claimed That Truckers For Collin’s Businesses Caused Them To Collectively Incur Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars In Medical Expenses. According to ProPublica, “Drivers and passengers who were injured in those crashes later claimed in lawsuits that truckers for Collins’ business have caused them to collectively incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses. The figure the business has paid out is not known because the settlements it reached with crash victims have been confidential, as is common in such suits. Court filings in one suit state that both parties agreed to a $1 million payout from the business’s insurer. Collins’ business denied wrongdoing by truckers and the business itself in those cases.” [ProPublica, 5/11/26]
Collins’ Business Had A Higher Rate Of Unsafe Driving And Speeding Violations Per Mile Than The Majority Of The Trucking Companies. According to ProPublica, “ProPublica’s analysis of federal motor vehicle data from the past two years shows that Collins’ business has a higher rate of unsafe driving and speeding violations per mile than the majority of trucking companies with substantial mileage. The analysis also shows that the company’s recent crash rate sits around the median of similar companies, while the rate of injury from those crashes sits in the top fifth.” [ProPublica, 5/11/26]
Collins Opposed Technologies That Would Make Trucking Safer. According to ProPublica, “Safety experts told ProPublica that some of the technologies opposed by Collins, which include devices on semitrucks to limit their speed and sensors on big rigs to automatically brake in the face of a potential collision, reduce the odds of crashes leading to serious injuries and deaths. The country’s largest trucking trade group — a group that Collins’ family business is a member of, according to the company’s website — has supported mandates for those technologies.” [ProPublica, 5/11/26]
Collins Opposed The Biden Administration Rule To Install Devices To Limit The Speed Of Trucks. According to ProPublica, “Toward the end of 2023, his first year in Congress, Collins had one of his first chances to support a measure that experts believed could make the roads safer. The Biden administration had proposed a rule that would require the installation of devices to limit the speed of trucks, capping it as low as 60 miles per hour. But Collins questioned the need for the rule. He told officials at a transportation committee hearing that the federal government shouldn’t require the safety measure. He said insurance companies already serve as a sufficient speeding deterrent, because they have the ability to cut off coverage to truckers with unsafe driving records. He also said the rule wasn’t needed because of yet another deterrent that had long been in place. ‘They are called speed limit signs,’ he said. ‘They are enforced by law enforcement.’” [ProPublica, 5/11/26]
Collins Opposed Installing Automatic Breaking With Collins Claiming That It Was Expensive And Didn’t Work Well. According to ProPublica, “Collins also pushed back against a different proposal, which would have required trucks to have automatic emergency braking systems. That technology can force a truck to slow down if the potential for a collision is detected. Federal officials had estimated that the braking system mandate could prevent more than 8,000 injuries a year. ATA supported much of the proposal, too. Yet Collins, whose family business has used those systems in some trucks, explained at recent congressional hearings that the technology was ‘very expensive’ and didn’t work that well. ‘People don’t understand that these things are actually hurting more than they’re helping right now,’ Collins said at a hearing last year.” [ProPublica, 5/11/26]