By:  Luna, et al.                                      S.B. No. 445
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the offense of operation of a vehicle with a child in
    1-2  an open bed of the vehicle or in the open bed of a trailer being
    1-3  towed by the vehicle.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subsections (a) and (c), Section 107D, Uniform
    1-6  Act Regulating Traffic on Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas
    1-7  Civil Statutes), are amended to read as follows:
    1-8        (a)  A person commits an offense if the person<, at a speed
    1-9  that exceeds 35 miles per hour,> operates an open bed pickup truck
   1-10  or an open flatbed truck or tows an open flatbed trailer on a
   1-11  public street or highway when a child younger than 18 <12> years of
   1-12  age is occupying the bed of the truck or trailer.
   1-13        (c)  It is a defense to prosecution under this section that
   1-14  the person was operating or towing the vehicle in a parade or in an
   1-15  emergency.
   1-16        (d)  Compliance or noncompliance with Subsection (a) of this
   1-17  section is not admissible evidence in a civil trial.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.  The
   1-19  change in law made by this Act applies only to an offense committed
   1-20  on or after September 1, 1995.  An offense committed before the
   1-21  effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
   1-22  offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect
   1-23  for that purpose.  For purposes of this section, an offense was
   1-24  committed before September 1, 1995, if any element of the offense
    2-1  occurred before that date.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.