California, Washington and New Mexico could lose millions of dollars of federal funding if they continue failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday.An investigation launched after a deadly Florida crash involving a foreign truck driver who made an illegal U-turn on Aug.12 found what Duffy called significant failures in the way all three states are enforcing rules that took effect in June after one of President Donald Trump's executive orders.
He said the department was also already reviewing how states were enforcing the rules before the crash.Truckers are supposed to be disqualified if they can't demonstrate English proficiency and Duffy said the driver involved in the crash that killed three should not have ever been given a commercial driver's license because of his immigration status.But the crash has become increasingly political with the governors of California and Florida criticizing each other and Duffy highlighting the Trump administration's immigration concerns in interviews.But Duffy said Tuesday that it is a safety issue — not a political one — because truckers need to understand road signs and be able to communicate with law enforcement about what they are hauling if they are pulled over or what happened if there is an accident.“This is about keeping people safe on the road.
Your families, your kids, your spouses, your loved ones, your friends.We all use the roadway, and we need to make sure that those who are driving big rigs — semis — can understand the road signs, that they’ve been well trained,” Duffy said.The Transportation Department said California has conducted roughly 34,000 inspections that found at least one violation since the new language standards took effect requiring truck drivers be able to recognize and read road signs and communicate with authorities in English.
But only one inspection involved an English language rules violation that resulted in a d...