Driving handbook in Spanish soon

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, July 27, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

With a sign above the entrance that said "Bienvenido," the Department of Motor Vehicles office on Sahara Avenue and McLeod Drive welcomed thousands of Hispanics in their own language for the first time last week.

But the city's fastest-growing minority group will soon get more than signs in Spanish. For the first time apart from a brief period in the early 1990s, the DMV will come out with a handbook in the language of many of the county's 302,000 Hispanics.

In doing so, the agency corrects a problem that has been growing as the state's Hispanic population has more than tripled in the last decade -- the written test for licenses is available in Spanish, but Hispanics who choose to take this test have nothing to study from.

Though it is impossible to establish a cause-effect relationship between having the handbook and passing or failing the test, there is a significant difference between English and Spanish test results.

In the 2000-2001 period, 156,476 people took the test in English, and 98,834, or 63 percent, passed; 18,776 took the test in Spanish, and 9,099, or 48 percent, passed.

With the DMV's plans to publish a handbook in Spanish again, Nevada will join 17 states that offer the book and the test in Spanish. Fourteen states offer only the test in Spanish.

Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, first raised the issue in 1993 and brought it up again before the most recent legislative session.

"To me, this is about safety," said Chowning, whose district is majority Hispanic and who also serves on the DMV's oversight subcommittee. "If these people can study as well as take the test in Spanish, then they could become safer drivers on the road.

"Look at the traffic signs, for example. The manual explains in detail what they mean, but the test only asks about a few of them. With the manual in Spanish, they will better understand these signs."

Chowning, who taught secondary school Spanish for 20 years, volunteered to help translate the handbook eight years ago. This proved unnecessary as the DMV found funds for translating and publishing the handbook in Spanish. About 20,000 copies were printed, DMV deputy director Ginny Lewis said.

When all the copies were distributed, there were no funds to do a version reflecting changes in laws in the following legislative session, Lewis said. During DMV budget hearings in March 2001, Chowning asked what had happened to the handbook in Spanish.

"Basically, the issue had fallen through the cracks all these years," said Chowning.

Both Lewis and Chowning had little idea how thousands of Hispanics were preparing for the written tests in Spanish during the approximately seven years that the handbook was out of print.

"I suppose many of these people have their children translate the English handbook for them, since the Hispanic population tends to be more bilingual from the second generation on," said Chowning.

Lewis said several schools teach courses in Spanish to prepare Hispanics for the written test.

The oldest one is the Giron Driving School, which began offering a theory of driving course in Spanish five years ago. Its owner, Harold Giron, said about 1,400 students take his course every year, which costs $50 for three hours. He said 90 percent of his students pass the test.

Giron also said he has heard that photocopies of the 1993 handbook in Spanish are being offered for sale in Hispanic communities in Reno for $7.

The DMV has budgeted $9,500 for fiscal year 2002 and $12,700 for fiscal year 2003 for the translation and printing of the handbooks. The agency may contract with the Department of Prisons for the translation, a service this department's staff performs for other agencies.

"I know that many people feel we shouldn't produce anything in any other language than English, since this is our official language," said Chowning.

"But this measure involves people who are driving next to you and I on the road."