Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Truckers Must Speak English

Trucker fined $500 for failing roadside English test.
Manuel Castillo drove through Alabama in a truck filled with 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
fight the ticket.

More about that law:
Federal law requires that anyone with a commercial driver's 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.

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