By:  Hunter, Bob                                      H.B. No. 1271
       73R4828 JD-F
                                 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.  Section 186, Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on
    1-7  Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended
    1-8  to read as follows:
    1-9        Sec. 186.  FLEEING OR ATTEMPTING TO ELUDE A POLICE OFFICER.
   1-10  (a)  The <Any> driver of a motor vehicle who willfully fails or
   1-11  refuses to bring his vehicle to a stop<, or who otherwise flees or
   1-12  attempts to elude a pursuing police vehicle,> when given visual or
   1-13  audible signal to bring the vehicle to a stop<,> shall be guilty of
   1-14  an offense <a misdemeanor>.  The signal given by the police officer
   1-15  may be by hand, voice, emergency light or siren.  The officer
   1-16  giving such signal shall be in uniform, prominently displaying his
   1-17  badge of office, and the <his> vehicle of the officer, if any,
   1-18  shall be appropriately marked showing it to be an official police
   1-19  vehicle.
   1-20        (b)  The driver of a motor vehicle commits an offense if the
   1-21  driver:
   1-22              (1)  uses evasive driving tactics to avoid arrest or
   1-23  detention by a police officer who is operating an appropriately
   1-24  marked official police vehicle that is displaying one or more
    2-1  emergency lights or emitting sound from a siren and who the driver
    2-2  knows is attempting to arrest or detain the driver; and
    2-3              (2)  recklessly engages in conduct that places any
    2-4  person, including the driver, in imminent danger of serious bodily
    2-5  injury.
    2-6        (c) <(b)>  It is presumed that the driver recklessly engaged
    2-7  in conduct placing a person <another> in imminent danger of serious
    2-8  bodily injury under Subsection (b) <(c)> of this section if the
    2-9  driver knowingly operated a motor vehicle while intoxicated during
   2-10  the commission of the offense.  In this subsection, "intoxicated"
   2-11  has the meaning assigned that term by Article 6701l-1, Revised
   2-12  Statutes.
   2-13        (d) <(c)>  An offense under this section is a Class B
   2-14  misdemeanor <unless the driver, during the commission of the
   2-15  offense, recklessly engaged in conduct that placed another in
   2-16  imminent danger of serious bodily injury, in which event the
   2-17  offense is a Class A misdemeanor>, except as provided by Subsection
   2-18  (e) of this section.
   2-19        (e)  An offense under Subsection (b) of this section is a
   2-20  felony of the third degree.
   2-21        SECTION 2.  Section 24(a), Chapter 173, Acts of the 47th
   2-22  Legislature, Regular Session, 1941 (Article 6687b, Vernon's Texas
   2-23  Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
   2-24        (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (g) of this Section,
   2-25  the license of any person shall be automatically suspended upon
   2-26  final conviction of:
   2-27              (1)  an offense under Section 19.07, Penal Code,
    3-1  committed as a result of the person's criminally negligent
    3-2  operation of a motor vehicle;
    3-3              (2)  an offense under Section 19.05(a)(2), Penal Code;
    3-4              (3)  an offense under Article 6701l-1, Revised
    3-5  Statutes;
    3-6              (4)  an offense punishable as a felony under the motor
    3-7  vehicle laws of this State;
    3-8              (5)  an offense under Section 38, Uniform Act
    3-9  Regulating Traffic on Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil
   3-10  Statutes); <or>
   3-11              (6)  an offense under Section 32 or 32A of this Act; or
   3-12              (7)  an offense under Section 38.04(a), Penal Code, if
   3-13  the person operated a motor vehicle during the commission of the
   3-14  offense.
   3-15        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.  The
   3-16  changes in law made by this Act apply only to offenses committed on
   3-17  or after that date.  An offense committed before the effective date
   3-18  of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was
   3-19  committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
   3-20  purpose.  For purposes of this section, an offense was committed
   3-21  before the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense
   3-22  occurred before that date.
   3-23        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-25  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   3-26  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-27  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.