By:  Shelley                                          S.B. No. 1053
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the punishment provided for failure to stop and render
    1-2  aid following an accident involving death or personal injuries.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 38, Uniform Act
    1-5  Regulating Traffic on Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil
    1-6  Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  Any person failing to stop or to comply with said
    1-8  requirements under such circumstances shall upon conviction be
    1-9  punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not to exceed five (5)
   1-10  years or in jail not exceeding one (1) year or by fine not
   1-11  exceeding Five Thousand ($5,000.00) Dollars, or by both such fine
   1-12  and imprisonment, unless the accident resulted in the death of any
   1-13  person in which event any person failing to stop or to comply with
   1-14  said requirements under such circumstances shall upon conviction be
   1-15  punished for a felony of the third degree.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-17  only to the punishment of an offense committed on or after the
   1-18  effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an
   1-19  offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any
   1-20  element of the offense occurs before the effective date.
   1-21        (b)  The punishment of an offense committed before the
   1-22  effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
   1-23  offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect
    2-1  for this purpose.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-3        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.