At Western Truck School, instructors say their job is to ensure that every driver is proficient in English when they leave, as part of the law. However the federal government claims that the state isn't enforcing this.
"We lost 3 people for no purpose, no reason. But for a driver who should not have been driving a big rig. That's unacceptable,” said U.S Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.
It's for this exact reason that Secretary Duffy held a press conference on Tuesday claiming that California, Washington, and New Mexico are not following federal English proficiency laws for truck drivers.
This follows the Florida crash that killed 3 people and though the trucker was California-licensed, the driver allegedly failed an English test when questioned by federal officials.
The federal law mandates that commercial truck drivers must be proficient in English, understand and respond to questions from law enforcement, comprehend highway signs and signals, and communicate in emergencies.
Western Truck School has been teaching truckers in Bakersfield for almost 60 years and instructors tell me, this is something they've been doing since the beginning.
"We follow the FMCSA DOT regulations which means we are implementing the ELDT training program, everything we do here is only in English,” said Rannie Vincent, Admissions Career Services for Western Truck School.
However Secretary Duffy claims that each of these states have not been enforcing the English language requirements, and they risk losing federal funding.
"We don't want to take away money from states, but we will take money away and we'll take additional steps that get progressively more difficult for these states,” said Secretary Duffy. “There's a lot of great tools that we have here that we don't want to use. We just want to keep drivers safe."
23ABC reached out to Governor Gavin Newsom's Office for comment. In a statement given to us by a spokesperson, the office says,
"This is rich. The Trump Administration approved the federal work permit for the man who killed 3 people — and now they're scrambling to shift blame after getting caught. Sean's nonsense announcement is as big a joke as the Trump Administration itself. SAD!"
The federal government says California has 30 days to comply with the law, it's still unclear as to how the state will respond.
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