California, New Mexico and Washington could risk losing federal funding if they fail to enforce English language proficiency requirements for commercial motor vehicle drivers, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday.
The move comes on the heels of an Aug. 12 deadly Florida Turnpike crash involving an 18-wheeler making an unauthorized U-turn. The driver, Harjinder Singh, failed an ELP assessment during an interview with the Federal Motor Carrier Administration following the accident. Singh missed 10 of 12 verbal questions on the proficiency test and was only able to correctly identify one of four traffic signs, according to officials.
During a Tuesday morning news conference, Duffy said the DOT is giving the three states 30 days to comply before withholding “up to 100% of funding” from the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program.
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