By Luna S.B. No. 445
74R4830 JD-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the operation of a vehicle with a child in an open bed
1-3 of the vehicle or in the open bed of a trailer being towed by the
1-4 vehicle.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Sections 107D(a) and (c), Uniform Act Regulating
1-7 Traffic on Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes),
1-8 are amended to read as follows:
1-9 (a) A person commits an offense if the person<, at a speed
1-10 that exceeds 35 miles per hour,> operates an open bed pickup truck
1-11 or an open flatbed truck or tows an open flatbed trailer on a
1-12 public street or highway when a child younger than 18 <12> years of
1-13 age is occupying the bed of the truck or trailer.
1-14 (c) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that
1-15 the person was operating or towing the vehicle in a parade or in an
1-16 emergency.
1-17 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995. The
1-18 change in law made by this Act applies only to an offense committed
1-19 on or after September 1, 1995. An offense committed before the
1-20 effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
1-21 offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect
1-22 for that purpose. For purposes of this section, an offense was
1-23 committed before September 1, 1995, if any element of the offense
1-24 occurred before that date.
2-1 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.