If you can't speak english, you shouldn't be driving at all, i say. Death
to all beans.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25716031/
Feds look to tighten English law for truckers
Rule change will hit nation's fast-growing Spanish-speaking population
updated 6:44 a.m. MT, Thurs., July. 17, 2008
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Manuel Castillo was driving a truck through Alabama
hauling onions and left with a $500 ticket for something he didn't think
he was doing: speaking English poorly.
Castillo, who was stopped on his way back to California, said he knows
federal law requires him to be able to converse in English with an
officer but he thought his language skills were good enough to avoid a
ticket.
Still, Castillo said he plans to pay the maximum fine of $500 rather than
return to Alabama to fight the ticket.
"It just doesn't seem fair to be ticketed if I wasn't doing anything
dangerous on the road," he said.
Federal law requires that anyone with a commercial drivers license speak
English well enough to talk with police. Authorities last year issued
25,230 tickets nationwide for violations. Now the federal government is
trying to tighten the English requirement, saying the change is needed
for safety reasons.
Most states let truckers and bus drivers take at least part of their
license tests in languages other than English. But the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration has proposed rules requiring anyone
applying for a commercial drivers license to speak English during their
road test and vehicle inspection. The agency wants to change its rules to
eliminate the use of interpreters, and congressional approval isn't
required.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated last year that more than 17
percent of the nation's 3.4 million truck drivers were Hispanic, as were
more than 11 percent of its 578,000 bus drivers. It's unknown how many
speak both Spanish and English.
(snip)
|
