Driver cleared of intoxication suspicions in I-35 pile up should have had non-domiciled CDL, NTSB report shows

The truck driver cleared of intoxication suspicions after a pile up crash on Interstate 35 should have been issued a non-domiciled CDL instead of a standard one, a National Transportation Safety Board report shows. 

Truck driver Solomun Weldekeal-Araya was involved in a crash on Interstate 35 outside of Austin, Texas last one year ago. Five people were killed and 11 were injured. Many witnesses described the semi truck “plowing” through stopped traffic. Weldekeal was initially determined to be intoxicated by police at the scene, but further testing discredited those suspicions, showing that he was sober at the time of the wreck. He is still facing felony manslaughter and aggravated assault charges for the accident, and is currently out on bond. 

Now, an NTSB report on the accident shows that Weldekeal-Araya was incorrectly issued an “unrestricted” CDL by the Texas DPS when he should have been issued a non-domiciled CDL that would have expired well before the crash. 

The report shows that Weldekeal-Araya possessed an employment authorization card that expired in October 2022. When he was issued a CDL by the Texas DPS in 2021, he should have been issued a non-domiciled CDL that expired when his employment authorization card did, instead of a standard CDL that expired in 2023, reported KXAN.

“FMCSA cannot speculate on what type of documentation the driver could have presented at subsequent issuance events and thus what credential the crash driver might have been eligible for at the time of the crash,” the report states.

At the time of the crash, “Texas did not recognize applicants who were in the United States as a refugee as a person who would meet the definition as a non-domiciled applicant and therefore issued a normal unrestricted CDL to those applicants if they meet the other qualification standards.”

Since the crash, Texas has “suspended the issuance of non-domiciled CDL’s until Texas could develop a proposed compliance plan to address” the new rule regarding non-domiciled CDL restrictions.