BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	H.B. 1199
88R3612 CXP-D	By: Dean (Hughes)
	Transportation
	5/12/2023
	Engrossed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

On March 8, 2021, Kelly Hall, a constituent of mine, was killed when a trailer became unhitched on the highway near Tyler.� About one year earlier, Kelly's brother was killed on a Texas highway in a similar accident involving an unhitched trailer.� In the accident that killed Mrs. Hall, a report from the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas (DPS) showed the trailer had not been properly attached to the hitch.��� �����

Currently, the statewide vehicle accident report does not track when a trailer was involved in an accident.� Law enforcement has no way to track when a trailer is involved in an accident and there are no available statistics to determine the frequency of accidents that involve a trailer. � �

In response to the tragic deaths of Kelly Hall and her brother Trent Hepler, this bill addresses reporting of a trailer-involved accident.� �����

H.B. 1199 directs the Texas Department of Transportation to make necessary changes to the statewide crash report (CR-3) and have DPS add "presence of a trailer" to accident reports related to vehicles with a trailer attached.

H.B. 1199 amends current law relating to the inclusion of certain information regarding trailers in vehicle accident reports.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Section 201.806(a), Transportation Code, as follows:

(a)  Requires the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to:

(1) makes no changes to this subdivision;

(2) annually or more frequently publish on TxDOT's Internet website statistical information derived from the accident reports as to the number, cause, and location of highway accidents, including information regarding the number of:

(A)-(B) makes nonsubstantive changes to this paragraph; and

(C)  accidents involving a trailer, including the number of fatalities in those accidents.

SECTION 2. Amends Section 550.064(b), Transportation Code, as follows:

(b)  Requires that an accident report form prepared by TxDOT:

(1)-(2) makes no changes to these subdivisions;

(3)-(4) makes nonsubstantive changes to these subdivisions; and

(5)  include a way to indicate whether a trailer was involved in the accident and, if so, whether the accident resulted in any fatalities.

SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 2023.

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