The Alabama Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed SB242 on a 34-0 vote, sending a bill to the House that would require all commercial drivers to be proficient in English and provide valid entry documents if their license is from another country.

Under the bill, a driver who is not proficient in English and receives a traffic citation would face a $1,000 fine for the operator and $2,000 for the driver. Those fines are doubled on subsequent violations.

The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Lance Bell (R-Pell City), codifies an existing federal requirement for English proficiency among commercial drivers into Alabama law. Bell said the purpose of the bill is to eliminate “bad actors” on the state’s highways.

“We all know that 18-wheelers going up and down the road are very dangerous, and we’ve got to make sure we don’t have the bad actors there,” Bell said. “We have people that are actually certified and able to drive that cargo, get it from point A to point B.”

Bell cited a May accident in Thomasville as evidence of the need for the legislation. According to local reports, the driver of an 18-wheeler killed two people after running into several cars stopped at a red light. The driver was in the United States on a work visa and only spoke Russian.

“Our good, hard-working, everyday truck drivers are not the ones causing issues,” Bell said. “They’re schooled on what they’re doing, they’re trained on what they’re doing, and that’s what it needs to be all day, every day going up and down the roads.”

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].