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.