Posted on 07/17/2008 6:06:13 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
It's only taking then 38 years to decide to enforce the rules?
hmmm slow even for them
From the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration;
391.11(b)(2)
Background - Under §391.11(b)(2) of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR), it says that all drivers must “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.” This rule was often thought of as being subjective. In the past, each employer and law enforcement personnel interpreted the rule differently. Even though the rule has been in effect since 1970, no one had been placed out-of-service because it was not incorporated into the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria (a.k.a. Out-of-Service Criteria). The OOS Criteria is published by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).
from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance;
New Out of Service Criteria from CVSA effective April 1, 2005The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has updated the North American Standard Out OfService (OOS) Criteria handbook for commercial vehicles.
The updates, which include Hours of Service andLoad Securement, are in the new handbook that is available on their website. If you are interested inpurchasing this new handbook, please contact T.J. Cantwell at , as NLBMDA is able to obtain adiscount for bulk purchases through our membership with CVSA.
All CVSA certified law enforcement agencies (and most of them are certified) use these criteria wheninspecting your vehicles and determining whether the vehicle or driver is classified as OOS. Once a driver or
vehicle is declared OOS, the vehicle cannot be moved until the issue is resolved and you are back incompliance.One notable inclusion to the new OOS criteria is the following reference regarding drivers:“If a commercial vehicle driver is unable to communicate sufficiently to understand and respond to officialinquires and directions, he/she will be placed out of service.”
In accordance with FMCSR 391.11 (b)(2) a person is qualified to operate a commercial vehicle if he/she:(b)(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, tounderstand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and tomake entries on reports and records;Remember, that this applies to all commercial vehicles, not just your fleet vehicles that require a CDLto operate.
While the new CVSA OOS criteria is not an “English Language Requirement”, it is important tounderstand that you, as a motor carrier, have the obligation to ensure that all your drivers have sufficientcommunication skills to carry out their assigned duties. Don’t rely on the officer being able to speak Spanishor other language in order to communicate with your driver.
I know, many of them do speak English just fine and they are just playing a game. Enforcement of and $500 tickets would put an end to the “no habla” BS in fairly short order.
what he got was ALL RITE!
YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO SPEAK AND UNDERSTAND ME AND IF YOU CAN'T YOU'RE GOING TO JAIL!
he immediately started speaking better kings English that either of the rest of us standing there.
we giggled about that for 50 miles...
LOL
I’ve seen highway patrolmen do the exact same thing down here. They just need to make it standard operating procedure.
>:“If a commercial vehicle driver is unable to communicate sufficiently to understand and respond to officialinquires and directions, he/she will be placed out of service.”<
Have you ever heard of this happening?
Were you on a State highway or an Interstate? I remmeber when if you got caught on a State highway, you went to see the judge. Interstates worked under federal laws, you were arrested or written a citation.
"It just doesn't seem fair to be ticketed if I wasn't doing anything dangerous on the road," he said.
Now here's the same line from the same AP article printed in my local newspaper (The Rock Island Argus):
"It just doesn't seem fair to be ticketed if I wasn't doing anything dangerous on the road," he said in an interview in Spanish.
Now why would Fox edit and omit the end of the sentence? Looks like the editor wants us to believe the trucker said those words in English, but for what reason? To garner sympathy and support for this beleaguered "permanent U.S. resident" (whatever that means)?
What the hell happened to the formerly conservative Fox News? And to deceptively edit an AP article, of all things!
It was on a state highway - about 3 a.m. Tooling along and came upon a very slow moving truck piled to the hilt plus about 5 feet of small boxes. Kicked it to get around and there the darling was! Oh well. I was quite polite - even for me but it still cost me $250.00 cash or they would be happy to escort me to the nearest ATM! Figured some of it went as a contribution to the judge’s re-election warchest.
This year during Roadcheck, a Bosnian driver was mot only placed out of service but arrested when he tried to leave a POE as officers tried to instruct him to park and complete a level 3 inspection...
he was charged with assault and attempted murder.
but to really answer your question no it isn't enforced as a general rule...
I don’t think it ever will be popular.
Don’t worry. Bush will jail the offending officer and see that the poor trucker, who is just Doing A Job No American Will Do, has his fine revoked. And he will be the recipient of a few million dollars for the pain and suffering he has endured at the hands of xenophobic, racist Americans.
‘cuz my tagline says so.
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