TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Manuel Castillo was driving a truckload of onions through Alabama and left with a $500 ticket for doing something he didn't think he was doing: speaking English poorly.
Mr. 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.
Mr. Castillo said he plans to pay the maximum fine of $500 rather than return to Alabama to fight the ticket.
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.
Most states let truckers and bus drivers take at least part of their license tests in languages other than English.
But the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed rules requiring anyone applying for a commercial driver's license to speak English during their road test and vehicle inspection.
Drivers could still take written tests in other languages in states where that is allowed and they wouldn't have to be completely fluent during the road test, said Bill Quade, an associate administrator with the agency.
"Our requirement is that drivers understand English well enough to respond to a roadside officer and to be able to converse," said Mr. Quade, who heads enforcement.
The rule change, which Mr. Quade said would likely take effect next year, could particularly affect the nation's fast-growing Spanish-speaking population.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated last year that more than 17 percent of the nation's 3.4 million truck drivers were Hispanic, as were more than 11 percent of its 578,000 bus drivers.
It's unknown how many speak both Spanish and English.
An Alabama state trooper thought Mr. Castillo, 50, couldn't speak English well enough to drive an 18-wheeler when he was headed back to California from picking up onions in Glennville, Ga.
A driver for 20 years, Mr. Castillo was stopped in west Alabama for a routine inspection.
Mr. Castillo, who says he speaks English at roughly a third-grade level, said he understood when the trooper asked him where he was heading and to see his commercial driver's license and registration.
He said he responded in English, though he speaks with an accent.
Mr. Castillo wasn't speeding and the inspection and computer check turned up no offenses, so he was surprised to get a ticket for being a "non-English speaking driver."