Connor Dzion | The Law Firm of Pajcic & Pajcic
Published on June 4, 2025 at 5:44 pm
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The St. Johns County Commission agreed Tuesday to send a letter to Washington D.C. in support of an effort to permanently require an English-language proficiency test for truck drivers.
Proposed by U.S. Rep. David Taylor, R-Ohio, Connor’s Law is named for a St. Johns County teen who was killed in a multi-vehicle crash on I-95 in 2017.
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Connor Dzion, 18, was stuck in standstill traffic due to a crash on I-95 when he was rear-ended by a truck driver who did not slow down in time. The truck driver, Yadwinder Sangha, was allegedly unable to read English well enough to understand signs alerting him to stopped traffic.
Federal law already requires that truck drivers speak English well enough to converse and understand traffic signs, but an executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year instituted an English proficiency test for drivers looking to get their Commercial Drivers License.
The law Taylor and Wyoming Congresswoman Harriet Hageman are sponsoring would codify that executive order into law.
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Speaking before the St. Johns County Commission Tuesday, Dzion’s mother, Melissa Dzion, urged the St. Johns County Commission to voice their support for the measure.
“When a driver that can’t read, speak nor understand our country’s national language is handed a license to drive, it essentially becomes a license to kill,” Dzion said. “Please don’t let one more mother have to bury her 18-year-old son. Don’t allow another family to endure the trauma and subsequent pain that my family has been forced to.”
County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst said he hopes the County Commission’s letter to members of congress, including the legislation’s sponsor, would help fast-track the bill’s path to law.
“Connor was a student at Creekside High School. It could have been your son, it could’ve been my daughter. It could’ve been anybody,” he said. “My mother’s from Cuba. I’m not anti-immigrant. I don’t care what languages you speak, but you’ve got to be able to read these digital signs in order for us all to be safe.”
