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.