H.B. No. 2584
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the weight of vehicles transporting recyclable
1-3 materials; providing penalties.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Title 116, Revised Statutes, is amended by adding
1-6 Article 6701d-19c to read as follows:
1-7 Art. 6701d-19c. WEIGHT OF VEHICLES TRANSPORTING RECYCLABLE
1-8 MATERIALS
1-9 Sec. 1. Vehicles, other than tractor-trailer combination
1-10 vehicles, equipped with container roll-off units and exclusively
1-11 transporting recyclable materials, as defined in Chapter 361,
1-12 Health and Safety Code, may be operated upon the public streets and
1-13 highways of this state with a tandem axle gross load not to exceed
1-14 44,000 pounds, a single axle gross load not to exceed 21,000
1-15 pounds, and a gross load for the vehicle not to exceed 64,000
1-16 pounds, provided that where the vehicle is to be operated with a
1-17 tandem axle gross load in excess of 34,000 pounds, the owner,
1-18 except if the owner is a municipality, of such vehicle shall first
1-19 file with the Texas Department of Transportation a surety bond in
1-20 the principal sum as fixed by the department, which sum shall not
1-21 be set at a greater amount than $15,000 for each vehicle; said bond
1-22 to be conditioned that the owner of such vehicle will pay to the
1-23 State of Texas and to any municipality in which such vehicle is
2-1 operated on city streets, within the limit of such bond, all
2-2 damages done to the highways and the city streets by reason of the
2-3 operation of such vehicle with a tandem axle gross load in excess
2-4 of 34,000 pounds; such bonds shall be subject to the approval of
2-5 the Texas Department of Transportation.
2-6 Sec. 2. This article does not authorize the operation on the
2-7 national system of interstate and defense highways in this state of
2-8 vehicles of a size or weight greater than authorized in 23 U.S.C.
2-9 Section 127, as amended. If the United States government
2-10 authorizes the operation on the national system of interstate and
2-11 defense highways of vehicles of a size or weight greater than those
2-12 authorized on January 1, 1983, the new limits automatically shall
2-13 be in effect on the national system of interstate and defense
2-14 highways in this state.
2-15 Sec. 3. (a) It shall be unlawful and constitute a
2-16 misdemeanor for any person to violate any of the provisions of this
2-17 article.
2-18 (b) Any person, corporation, or receiver who violates any
2-19 provision of this article shall, upon conviction, be punished by a
2-20 fine of not more than $200; for a second conviction within one year
2-21 thereafter such person, corporation, or receiver shall be punished
2-22 by a fine of not more than $500, or by imprisonment in the county
2-23 jail for not more than 60 days, or by both such fine and
2-24 imprisonment; and upon a third and subsequent conviction within one
2-25 year after the second conviction such person, corporation, or
3-1 receiver shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by
3-2 imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or by
3-3 both such fine and imprisonment. Provisions hereof with respect to
3-4 imprisonment shall not be applicable to corporations, but double
3-5 the fine herein provided for any may be imposed against them in
3-6 lieu of imprisonment.
3-7 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
3-8 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.