The first sugar beet harvest season that I was involved in was in 1991.

There were no fewer than six truck accidents involving agricultural haulers in South San Joaquin County in June of that year.

A reader penned a letter to the local newspaper claiming the cause of the accidents was farm workers who couldn’t read English.

Two of the six accidents were where the truck driver blew through a stop sign. The reader stated it was clear to him the driver couldn’t read.

A reasonable argument? Not exactly. The word for stop in Spanish is alto.

One little problem. The words are different but the signs they are on in both the United States and Mexico are deep bright red octagon pieces of sheet metal.

Perhaps the drivers, four of which were Mexican nationals although no accounts at the time indicated whether they were on work visas or not.

The California Highway Patrol — the guardians of road safety — stepped up its game.

They increased the road inspections in the area.

Guess what happened? They found numerous equipment violations. They also found several drivers who didn’t have commercial licenses.

The bottom line, however, is one hauler was basically put out of business.

Fast forward to Florida. A driver from Stockton — an illegal immigrant from India who entered the country from Mexico in 2018 — made a U-turn on Aug. 12 using an emergency vehicle access road only on a freeway. The truck jackknifed across all lanes into the path of a mini-van killing three people.

As luck would have it for political animals across the spectrum, the driver happened to have a California commercial drivers’ license issued on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s watch in Ron DeSantis’ state.

That driver, 28-year-old Harjinder Singh, legally gained a license just as he could do in 18 other states and the District of Columbia. California made it legal to do so in 2015.

But did anyone in their right mind in the California Legislature who voted for Assembly Bill 60 believe that allowing illegals to secure drivers’ licenses would also one day be issued to steer semi-trucks that weigh up to 80,000 pounds hurling at 55 mph down freeways loaded with unsuspecting people?

Nor would Californians suspect their state leaders would create a system where someone is issued a commercial drivers’ license can only correctly identify several of a dozen road signs when quizzed after the accident by Florida a state trooper.

Now for the fun part. Commercial driver license (CDL) rules are set by the federal government through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and not the 50 states.

Federal law doesn’t prevent legal immigrants from securing a CDL, but it clearly does illegal immigrants.

Truckers for more than 20 years have been required to be proficient in English to secure a CDL.

The Obama Administration in 2016 opted not to enforce the requirement.

Donald Trump, in his second term as president, issued an executive order that went into effect June 25 that truck drivers had to be proficient in English to reinstate the rule Obama undid.

Within less than two months, 3,000 truck drivers that could not proficiently speak English or read traffic signs were taken off the roads with their license effectively yanked.

It isn’t clear what their immigration status was, as since 2015 — at least in California — illegal immigrants could also be illegally issued commercial drivers’ license in this state that was in full blown sanctuary mode due to orders from Sacramento.

Keep in mind that was the landscape before Newsom was first elected governor.

Whether he shares the sentiment that commercial truck drivers who can’t proficiently read or speak English shouldn’t be sanctioned is not clear.

What is clear is no one in the California Legislature that bought heavily into the notion that the state government should operate 100 percent on sanctuary state mode gave it much thought.

As a result, the bureaucracy was left to fend for itself to comply to the sanctuary state edict.

That means either the California Department Vehicles as a whole – or perhaps select DMV offices — made the decision that the order of elected officials in Sacramento to make California a sanctuary state also applied to federal regulations regarding commercial drivers’ licenses and illegal immigrants.

It stands to reason, doesn’t it?

If state leaders make it clear enforcement officers are not supposed to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and California was willing to give illegals access to same medical services as legal residents, then it must be implied any federal law that treats illegal immigrants as if they are not American citizens are to be ignored.

Common sense would dictate that truck drivers should be proficient in English given the amount of communication they must do at weigh stations, interactions with law enforcement, filling federally required logs, and being able to read road signs.

But when has the bureaucracy, or Sacramento as a whole for that matter, ever been accused of exercising common sense?

After all, Trump’s declaration that English is the official language of the country has no legal legs to stand on. So it must mean that any federal regulations that require it, including to legal drive semi-trucks, is illegal as well. A slight problem with that line of thinking assuming anyone was thinking.

English was required to secure a commercial truck drivers’ license in all 50 states by the federal government that imposed the rule long before Trump popped up on TV screens on “The Apprentice.”

Singh’s prosecution should not be beyond what would normally happen to any truck driver who was issued a commercial license except for the fact that whether he is guilty or not he will likely be deported.

The real question is who is going to hold states responsible that issue drivers’ licenses to illegals for the wholesale ignoring of federal laws required for commercial truck licenses?

It’s one thing for California to say it isn’t going to treat illegal immigrants any different than anyone else in the United States legally, immigrants or otherwise. But it is entirely different matter issuing licenses to drivers who need a translator when they are hauled into court on suspicion of three counts of manslaughter for a job that has a federal safety mandate they must be proficient in English to perform.

—  This column is the opinion of Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Courier or 209 Multimedia. He may be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com