Truck Driver Regulations and Truck Accidents
There are many regulations from The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that apply specifically to commercial drivers who are driving across the country. One of these regulations that is a current “hot topic” across the country are drivers who can’t proficiently speak English.
If you stop and think about that for a minute, it’s really a very dangerous thought that there might be a driver out there carrying a load that is 50,000 lbs. or 60,000 lbs. on an interstate highway where the speed limit is 75 mph, and that driver can’t read or interpret traffic signs because they don’t know English and they can’t speak English.
There is a regulation that talks about the basic qualifications to be a licensed driver of a commercial motor vehicle across state lines, and that the commercial driver needs to be able to proficiently speak English. This regulation requires that the driver needs to be able to speak English in conversation, the driver needs to be able to understand traffic signs and signals, and the driver needs to be able to respond to official inquiries from a law enforcement officer.
At Willis, Willis & Rizzi we recently had a case where a commercial driver could not speak English, caused a devastating collision, and needed a Spanish translator at the crash scene to understand the responding police officer’s questions. The officer on the scene was calling the driver’s employer in Texas to try and find a translator for the commercial driver. If you are aware of the FMCSA regulations, that is a violation. The driver couldn’t respond to even the most basic inquiries from the officer. Because this driver couldn’t speak English, under the FMCSA, he should have never been on the highway in the first place.
This is where Willis, Willis & Rizzi will start looking at the hiring and training practices of the company that hired the driver. We look at the day the driver caused a collision, and we don’t know what really caused the collision because the driver couldn’t speak English. The driver couldn’t specifically explain himself to the responding officers. These are all violations of the most basic qualifications for a commercial driver.
Another way to think about it is, the accident could have been prevented because the driver shouldn’t have been on the road in the first place. If the carrier was following the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, they should have told the driver, “Thanks for applying, but until you can speak English and we can test you on road signs and you can respond to official inquiries from a law enforcement officer, we can’t have you driving for us.”
Contact Willis, Willis & Rizzi today at 330-535-2000 or fill in the request form on this page to speak to a personal injury attorney today if you have been injured by a commercial vehicle.
