Tax collector’s offices in Jacksonville must have sounded like the Tower of Babel in the first few days of this month, as foreigners rushed to get drivers licenses.

“Please hurry” was heard in Russian, Spanish, Croatian, Hindustan, Haitian, Creole, French, Portuguese and various other languages.

The applicants were trying to beat a deadline. Florida now requires the drivers license test to be taken in English.

The reason is safety, Tax Collector Jim Overton said. Drivers who can’t read traffic signs can pose a danger on the highways.

On Aug. 12 a fatal crash happened on the Florida Turnpike because an Indian national who had entered the United States illegally by crossing the southern border in 2018, attempted a U-turn in an 18-wheeler in a 70-mph zone, leading to the deaths of three people in a minivan.

The truck driver had a commercial drivers license from California.

Florida’s attorney general now is seeking revocation of commercial driver’s license issuing authority – as well as federal funding — in California and Washington.

James Uthmeier said, “States like California and Washington ignored the rules, gave an illegal alien a license to drive a 40-ton truck, and three people are dead as a result.”

He called it a “preventable tragedy due to sanctuary state policies.”

Florida plans to go on heightened alert for non-English speaking drivers at the 23 agricultural inspection stations in the state and also at special interdiction stations.

Needless to say, liberals objected to the commonsense reform, as they do to others such as voter ID.

Lefties will be delighted to know, however, this fact: There is an unannounced grace period, still in effect, that allows people to continue getting a license without being able to speak English.

Eye on Jacksonville still recommends learning this country’s language if you are from another country and plan to stay in America for any length of time.