Non-English speaking trucker charged in vehicular homicide
A commercial truck driver whose English was so bad that he could not communicate with police ran a stop sign in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, this past July crashing into North Carolina family's car. Killed in the crash were Kenneth and Janet Kerr, both age 35, their two daughters ages 16 and 13, and their 4 year-old son.
Authorities investigating the tragic accident were mystified how the Bosnian-born trucker, Ejub Grcic, 54, was able to obtain a valid Utah commercial driver's license. Grcic is part owner of EH Transport, a one-truck business in West Valley, Utah. Brandon Olsen, head of training at Mountain West Commercial Driver's License School in Salt Lake City, Utah, was equally perplexed. According to Olsen, "You have to have some ability to speak English. . . To be a trucker, you have to. It's the law."
But according to news reports Grcic, who speaks Croatian, needed an interpreter to communicate with police called to the scene of the accident. He also needed an interpreter at his subsequent court arraignment. Among other things authorities wanted to know why Grcic's rig was traveling on a rural road just prior to the accident. Police reports said the 40-ton tractor-trailer was far too heavy for the road, which had posted signs proclaiming a 10-ton weight limit.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's regulations for state driver qualifications, Section 391.11, commercial driver's license holders are supposed to be able to "read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in English, to respond to official inquiries and to make entries on reports and records."
"It's terrible events like the death of an entire family in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania that makes us angry that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration decided to withdraw its proposed national English standard for commercial truck drivers," said ProEnglish executive director KC McAlpin (see related article). "If the drivers of 80,000 pound rigs don't know English, the lives of every member of the public who use U.S. roads and highways are in danger."