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Trucker Fined for Not Speaking English

Manuel Castillo thought he spoke English well enough to not get a ticket. Truckers are required by federal law to be able to communicate "well" in English with police officers if they hold a commercial drivers license. Instead of returning to Alabama to fight the ticket and demonstrate his English abilities he decided to pay the $500 fine. Below are a few questions to consider:

1. If the U.S. is going to have a law like this then they should also have an objective verifiable test that each police officer can administer. This would eliminate any sense that the ticket is due to racism. It is ironic, one might think, that Manuel got the ticket in Alabama.

2. Truckers must learn English well. Make sure your commercial drivers can all communicate well enough in English to be able to speak with a police officer.

3. By all accounts, the federal government is trying to tighten the law so that commercial drivers tests are given only in English; including during the road test and vehicle inspection. This is not presently the case.

According to the AP article, more than 17 percent of truck drivers in this country are Spanish-speaking. Out of 3.4 million drivers, that is 578,000. Also, 11 percent of bus drivers are primarily Spanish speaking. That's another 63,580 drivers. That's a lot of drivers on the road who are going to be affected by this law.

Here's my big deal with this; if you are going to have the law, then you MUST have a test that is objective and fair for all people of all nationalities. This cannot be random for each police officer to decide by his own "language" standards. That would be fundamentally unfair and leave too much room for racial profiling which we all want and need to avoid.
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posted by Ricardo González on July 22, 2008.

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