On Aug. 12, an undocumented immigrant driving a semi-truck blocked four northbound lanes on the Florida Turnpike when he allegedly attempted to make an illegal U-turn from the shoulder through an "Official Use Only" turnaround in the median. As he attempted this unpredictable move, three people in a minivan were killed crashing into his truck.

If he had read and obeyed the “Official Use Only” sign, this tragic accident would not have occurred. Apparently, the problem was that he couldn’t read English. When officers with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration gave him an English Language Proficiency test after the accident, he was only able to give a correct response to two of 12 verbal questions, and he could only identify one out of four highway traffic signs.

This driver should not have been driving a commercial vehicle at all. Federal regulations governing qualifications for driving a commercial vehicle provide that drivers must be able to “read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to........

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