74R9878 JD-D
          By Greenberg, Naishtat                                  H.B. No. 34
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 34:
          By Alonzo                                           C.S.H.B. No. 34
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the offense of failing to require a passenger riding in
    1-3  a car to be secured by a safety belt.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 107C, Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on
    1-6  Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended
    1-7  by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (k) to read as
    1-8  follows:
    1-9        (c)  Except as provided by Subsection (k) of this section, a
   1-10  <A> person commits an offense if the person<:>
   1-11              <(1)>  operates on a road, street, or highway of this
   1-12  state a passenger car that is equipped with safety belts<;> and:
   1-13              (1)  the person <(2)>  allows a child who is at least
   1-14  four years old but less than 15 years old to ride in the front seat
   1-15  of the car without requiring the child to be secured by a safety
   1-16  belt; or
   1-17              (2)  the person allows a child who is at least four
   1-18  years old but less than 11 years old to ride in the rear seat of
   1-19  the car without requiring the child to be secured by a safety belt
   1-20  and shoulder strap, if rear seat passenger safety belts and
   1-21  shoulder straps were original equipment in the car.
   1-22        (k)  This section does not apply to the transportation of:
   1-23              (1)  a child in a passenger car in which all seating
   1-24  positions equipped with a safety belt are occupied; or
    2-1              (2)  a person in the rear seat of a truck with a
    2-2  manufacturer's rated carrying capacity of not more than 1,500
    2-3  pounds.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
    2-5  applies only to a person convicted of an offense committed on or
    2-6  after that date.  For purposes of this section, an offense was
    2-7  committed or conduct was engaged in before the effective date of
    2-8  this Act if any element of the offense or conduct occurred before
    2-9  the effective date.  An offense committed or conduct engaged in
   2-10  before the effective date of this Act is covered by the law in
   2-11  effect when the offense was committed or the conduct was engaged
   2-12  in, and the former law is continued in effect for this purpose.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-15  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   2-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.