By: Lucio S.B. No. 1174
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the weight of vehicles transporting recyclable
1-2 materials.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Article 6701d-19c is added to the Civil Statutes
1-5 of the State of Texas to read as follows:
1-6 Art. 6701d-19c. Weight of vehicles transporting recyclable
1-7 materials.
1-8 Sec. 1. Vehicles, other than tractor-trailer combination
1-9 vehicles, equipped with container roll-off units and exclusively
1-10 transporting recyclable materials, as defined in Chapter 361,
1-11 Health and Safety Code, may be operated upon the public streets and
1-12 highways of this state with a tandem axle gross load not to exceed
1-13 44,000 pounds, a single axle gross load not to exceed 21,000 pounds
1-14 and a gross load for the vehicle not to exceed 64,000 pounds,
1-15 provided that where the vehicle is to be operated with a tandem
1-16 axle gross load in excess of 34,000 pounds, the owner, except if
1-17 the owner is a municipality, of such vehicle shall first file with
1-18 the State Department of Transportation a surety bond in the
1-19 principal sum as fixed by the department, which sum shall not be
1-20 set at the greater amount than $15,000 for each vehicle; said bond
1-21 to be conditioned that the owner of such vehicle will pay to the
1-22 State of Texas and to any municipality in which such vehicle is
1-23 operated on city streets, within the limit of such bond, all
2-1 damages done to the highways and the city streets by reason of the
2-2 operation of such vehicle with a tandem axle gross load in excess
2-3 of 34,000 pounds; such bonds shall be subject to the approval of
2-4 the State Department of Transportation.
2-5 Sec. 2. This Act does not authorize the operation on the
2-6 national system of interstate and defense highways in this state of
2-7 vehicles of a size or weight greater than authorized in Title 23,
2-8 United States Code, Section 127, as amended. If the United States
2-9 government authorizes the operation on the national system of
2-10 interstate and defense highways of vehicles of a size or weight
2-11 greater than those authorized on January 1, 1983, the new limits
2-12 automatically shall be in effect on the national system of
2-13 interstate and defense highways in this state.
2-14 Sec. 3. (a) It shall be unlawful and constitute a
2-15 misdemeanor for any person to violate any of the provisions of this
2-16 Act.
2-17 (b) Any person, corporation, or receiver who violates any
2-18 provision of this act shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine
2-19 of not more than $200; for a second conviction within one year
2-20 thereafter such person, corporation, or receiver shall be punished
2-21 by a fine of not more than $500, or by imprisonment in the county
2-22 jail for not more than 60 days, or by both such fine and
2-23 imprisonment; and upon a third and subsequent conviction within one
2-24 year after the second conviction such person, corporation, or
2-25 receiver shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by
3-1 imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or by
3-2 both such fine and imprisonment. Provisions hereof with respect to
3-3 imprisonment shall not be applicable to corporations, but double
3-4 the fine herein provided for any be imposed against them in lieu of
3-5 imprisonment.
3-6 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
3-7 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.