By: Carona H.B. No. 8
73R887 JD-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to punishment for and civil consequences of certain
1-3 offenses involving fleeing from or attempting to elude a police
1-4 officer or evading arrest.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Sections 186(a) and (c), Uniform Act Regulating
1-7 Traffic on Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes),
1-8 are amended to read as follows:
1-9 (a) Any driver of a motor vehicle who willfully fails or
1-10 refuses to bring his vehicle to a stop, or who otherwise flees or
1-11 attempts to elude a pursuing police vehicle, when given visual or
1-12 audible signal to bring the vehicle to a stop, shall be guilty of
1-13 an offense <a misdemeanor>. The signal given by the police officer
1-14 may be by hand, voice, emergency light or siren. The officer
1-15 giving such signal shall be in uniform, prominently displaying his
1-16 badge of office, and his vehicle shall be appropriately marked
1-17 showing it to be an official police vehicle.
1-18 (c) An offense under this section is a felony of the third
1-19 degree <Class B misdemeanor> unless the driver, during the
1-20 commission of the offense, recklessly engaged in conduct that
1-21 placed another in imminent danger of serious bodily injury, in
1-22 which event the offense is a felony of the second degree <Class A
1-23 misdemeanor>.
1-24 SECTION 2. Section 24(a), Chapter 173, Acts of the 47th
2-1 Legislature, Regular Session, 1941 (Article 6687b, Vernon's Texas
2-2 Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
2-3 (a) Except as provided by Subsection (g) of this Section,
2-4 the license of any person shall be automatically suspended upon
2-5 final conviction of:
2-6 (1) an offense under Section 19.07, Penal Code,
2-7 committed as a result of the person's criminally negligent
2-8 operation of a motor vehicle;
2-9 (2) an offense under Section 19.05(a)(2), Penal Code;
2-10 (3) an offense under Article 6701l-1, Revised
2-11 Statutes;
2-12 (4) an offense punishable as a felony under the motor
2-13 vehicle laws of this State;
2-14 (5) an offense under Section 38, Uniform Act
2-15 Regulating Traffic on Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil
2-16 Statutes); <or>
2-17 (6) an offense under Section 32 or 32A of this Act; or
2-18 (7) an offense under Section 38.04(a), Penal Code, if
2-19 the person operated a motor vehicle during the commission of the
2-20 offense.
2-21 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1993. The
2-22 changes in law made by this Act apply only to offenses committed on
2-23 or after that date. An offense committed before the effective date
2-24 of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was
2-25 committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
2-26 purpose. For purposes of this section, an offense was committed
2-27 before the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense
3-1 occurred before that date.
3-2 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-3 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-4 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-5 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-6 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.