TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — 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.
Full Story Here:
Feds may tighten English fluency law for truckers
From the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration:
(b)(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records
How simple to understand, can it be any more simple? Well, maybe if it was printed in Spanish I guess… 
Before some of you liberal, immigration loving boneheads start screaming about racism, back up, take a deep breath and read the next 3 sentences very carefully. It has NOTHING to do with racism. It has EVERYTHING to do with SAFETY. Your safety!
Mexican truckers have little regard for FMCSA rules and regulations, they are being given free reign to run the highways of America in the debacle called NAFTA, and supposedly these drivers are qualified to run in the USA, under OUR rules and regulations.
Well, apparently not!
Authorities last year issued 25,230 tickets nationwide for violations. Believe me, it’s not because the police are on some covert campaign to stop the Mexican trucker.
If a Mexican trucker can’t read and/or understand the English language well enough to know that *Low Bridge* means *Low Bridge*, there is a very good chance that some innocent American motorist following along behind this Mexican trucker may very well DIE when the Mexican truckers *tops* his trailer and it all falls off on the roadway behind him, and onto any vehicles that may be there on that roadway as well.
Do you see the importance of English, and it’s use, by Mexican truckers now
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FMCSA Regulation 391.11 (b)(2) - Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records.
Enforce the laws on the books. Quit giving CDL tests in any language but English - comprede???? (don’t know and don’t care if it’s spelled correctly. I took French not Spanish in high school…..)
Well, I guess it sucked to be him. I am surprised that Texas does not mandate bilingual road signs. BTW: You ever have a trolling problem?
Robocop, I had a trolling problem, I use the WP banning features, now I just shoot the bastards and hang their carcass on a fence post..
You’re right Fred. This isn’t a race issue, but a safety one. All drivers, regardless of their race are required to have a good command of the English language. Not just Mexican drivers, but American ones too. And Canadians.
This law should be strictly enforced. It is for the publics’ safety and the drivers’ too.
Illegal Trucker: Mizzer policeman. Me not know your laws. Me no read English.
State Trooper: Mizzer Illegal. Me no care if you can see. Me no care what you can Read. Es scribble here.
Speak English or GTFO! Fucking greasers!