By:  Sibley                                             S.B. No. 53
       73R961 JD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the consequences of a driver's refusing to give a
    1-3  specimen of breath or blood.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 3(g), Chapter 434, Acts of the 61st
    1-6  Legislature, Regular Session, 1969 (Article 6701l-5, Vernon's Texas
    1-7  Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-8        (g)  If the person refuses a request by an officer to give a
    1-9  specimen of breath or blood, whether the refusal was express or the
   1-10  result of an intentional failure of the person to give the
   1-11  specimen, that fact may be introduced into evidence at the person's
   1-12  trial and establishes a presumption of intoxication.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.  The
   1-14  change in law made by this Act applies only to a person who is
   1-15  arrested on or after the effective date of this Act.  A person
   1-16  arrested before the effective date of this Act is covered by the
   1-17  law in effect when the arrest occurred, and the former law is
   1-18  continued in effect for this purpose.
   1-19        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-21  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   1-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.