By Coleman H.B. No. 580
75R2777 DWS-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to enforcement of laws relating to parking by persons with
1-3 disabilities.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 521, Transportation Code,
1-6 is amended by adding Section 521.0411 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 521.0411. DISABLED PARKING PLACARD RECORDS. The
1-8 department shall maintain suitable indexes, in alphabetical or
1-9 numerical order, that contain the name and, if applicable, the
1-10 driver's license number of each person who has been issued a
1-11 disabled parking placard under Chapter 681.
1-12 SECTION 2. Section 681.003(c), Transportation Code, is
1-13 amended to conform to Section 1, Chapter 929, Acts of the 74th
1-14 Legislature, Regular Session, 1995, and further amended to read as
1-15 follows:
1-16 (c) The first application must be accompanied by a notarized
1-17 written statement of a physician licensed to practice medicine in
1-18 this state certifying to the department [acceptable medical proof]
1-19 that the person making the application or on whose behalf the
1-20 application is made is legally blind or has a mobility problem that
1-21 substantially impairs the person's ability to ambulate. The
1-22 statement must include a certification of whether a mobility
1-23 problem, if applicable, is temporary or permanent [operator or
1-24 regularly transported passenger has a disability]. A written
2-1 statement from a physician is not required as acceptable medical
2-2 proof if:
2-3 (1) the person with a disability:
2-4 (A) has had a limb, hand, or foot amputated; or
2-5 (B) must use a wheelchair; and
2-6 (2) the applicant and the county assessor-collector
2-7 issuing the disabled parking placard execute an affidavit attesting
2-8 to the person's disability.
2-9 SECTION 3. Chapter 681, Transportation Code, is amended by
2-10 adding Section 681.0031 to read as follows:
2-11 Sec. 681.0031. APPLICANT'S DRIVER'S LICENSE NUMBER. (a) If
2-12 the applicant for a disabled parking placard holds a driver's
2-13 license, the applicant shall include the applicant's driver's
2-14 license number on the application. The department shall provide
2-15 for this information in prescribing the application form.
2-16 (b) If the application contains the applicant's driver's
2-17 license number, the county assessor-collector shall record the
2-18 number on any disabled parking placard issued to the applicant.
2-19 SECTION 4. In addition to the substantive changes in law
2-20 made by this Act, this Act conforms the Transportation Code to
2-21 changes in law made by Section 1, Chapter 929, Acts of the 74th
2-22 Legislature, Regular Session, 1995.
2-23 SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
2-24 SECTION 6. The importance of this legislation and the
2-25 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-26 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-27 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-1 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.