By:  Barrientos                                       S.B. No. 1182
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to amendments to Article 6701d (22), Vernon's Texas Civil
    1-2  Statutes.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Sec. 22, Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on
    1-5  Highways (Article 6701d (22), Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7                  Required obedience to traffic laws
    1-8        Sec. 22.  (a)  It is unlawful and unless otherwise declared
    1-9  in this Act with respect to particular offenses, it is a
   1-10  misdemeanor for any person to do any act forbidden or fail to
   1-11  perform any act required in this Act.
   1-12        (b)  When any person is charged with having committed an
   1-13  offense under this Act, proof that the vehicle identified in the
   1-14  complaint was, at the date of the offense alleged, owned by the
   1-15  person charged with the offense, shall constitute prima facie
   1-16  evidence that the owner was the person who committed the offense as
   1-17  charged in the complaint.
   1-18        (c)  A certified copy of the title and registration records
   1-19  relating to the ownership of said vehicle shall be admissible as
   1-20  prima facie evidence of the matters stated therein.
   1-21        (d)  Notwithstanding the provisions in Subsections (a) and
   1-22  (b) of this section, the owner of the vehicle shall have the right
   1-23  to introduce evidence to show that said vehicle was not in the
    2-1  owner's possession or control at such time and place as charged in
    2-2  the complaint.  The provisions of this section shall not affect the
    2-3  presumption of innocence but shall shift the burden of proof to the
    2-4  defendant to rebut the presumptions set forth in Subsections (a)
    2-5  and (b).
    2-6        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-11  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-12  passage, and it is so enacted.