A state senator’s proposal for English-only requirements for commercial drivers licenses certainly has some merit — but might be strengthened with a deeper dive into the issues concerning highway safety.

At about the same time as a horrific crash earlier this month claimed the lives of four Amish men in Indiana, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-33, said he’d be behind a bill proposing that all driver testing — regular and commercial — be done only in English. There would be no translators or translated documents.

On the surface, the proposal has merit. After all, if you can’t read a detour sign or understand a trooper’s warning, there’s a good chance you shouldn’t be steering 40,000 pounds of steel anywhere.

But it has little to do with the facts from the Indiana crash probe, or the long history of crashes in places like on Route 93 in Packer Township or Nesquehoning.

Investigators in Indiana say the driver of the rig, a Kyrgystani native living in Philadelphia, didn’t hit the brakes when traffic slowed, then swerved into a van carrying 15 people, killing four occupants.

He held a non-domiciled CDL issued by Pennsylvania after PennDOT certified his legal status via a federal immigration database that still showed him eligible.

Since then, federal officials have targeted Pennsylvania, even threatening to pull up to $75 million in highway funding over alleged violations.

That’s what the real conflict is about: the snarled intersection of state licensing rules, federal immigration status and trucking oversight methods that rely on outdated or confusing information.

Add to that questions about the CDL training process that produce drivers like the one in the Indiana crash. Reports have tied him to a Philadelphia area network that’s being watched by the federal government which includes a school that focuses on Kyrgystani drivers and other suspected license mills.

There are issues of fraud, supervision, and the responsibility of the firms using the drivers, and not ones of just whether the written test was printed in English or any other language.

Residents along Route 93 have watched tractor-trailers barrel down Spring Mountain, through Hudsondale heading for Broad Mountain and its intersection with Route 209 in Nesquehoning.

The problem is that they’re not supposed to be there.

Signs tell southbound drivers at the intersection of state routes 424 and 93 near Hazleton that the road is open to only local deliveries. The last chance to get off the highway before the mountain is near the PennDOT shed in Packer Township.

Yet drivers push on, ignoring a stop near the top, blowing past gear-down warnings and the runaway truck ramp installed years ago in hopes of preventing a tragedy just down the road.

The near-misses have been plenty.

In 2016, a truck made it to the ramp, but still ended up in trees at the end when even the ramp couldn’t stop it.

In August of 2024, a security camera captured a rig racing down the mountain before plowing into woods across the Route 209 intersection.

It’s an all-too-familiar sight for neighbors who fear what might happen if a school bus — or anything else — was in the way.

Many times, investigators in those and other incidents have learned that truck drivers couldn’t read English, or didn’t see the signs.

And those who’ve witnessed the accidents have called for more enforcement and stricter adherence to weight and gear limits.

Local and state police do their best to keep the road safe, but they can’t be there all the time.

Broad Mountain is a classic example of how industry pressure collides with enforcement issues and topography. Often, heavy loads, tight schedules and a regulatory system that reacts only when the wreckers arrive meet on that 9% grade.

Of course, language adds to the mix. CDL holders must be able to understand signs and traffic control devices — as well as law enforcement commands — in real time. Federal rules already require CDL holders to read and speak English well enough to talk with officers and read signs.

But that rule isn’t always at the forefront in a market that’s desperate for drivers.

Mastriano’s bill is well-intentioned, but it stops short of cracking down on more oversight of CDL schools and how they work.

It needs to fund more enforcement efforts and not just sweep anyone who can drive safely into a situation where little is done to catch bad drivers and schools that allow coached answers, encourage falsified logs or cut corners on maintenance.

Language requirements are no substitute for better oversight.

Who speaks what doesn’t matter when the roadside memorials are going up on the flat roads in Indiana or the unforgiving grade of Broad Mountain.

ED SOCHA tneditor@tnonline.com

Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 45 years’ experience in community journalism.

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.