By: Shapiro S.B. No. 1666
Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to driver's license eligibility and restrictions.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Subsection (g) of Section 12, Chapter 173, Acts
1-4 of the 47th Legislature, Regular Session, 1941 (Article 6687b,
1-5 Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
1-6 (g) Upon receipt of [notice] a court order that a person has
1-7 been restricted to the operation of a motor vehicle equipped with a
1-8 device that uses a deep-lung breath analysis mechanism to make
1-9 impractical the operation of the motor vehicle if ethyl alcohol is
1-10 detected in the breath of the restricted operator, the Department
1-11 shall notify the person that his current license will [expire] be
1-12 cancelled in thirty (30) days. Upon application by the person and
1-13 payment of a fee of Ten Dollars ($10.00), the department shall
1-14 issue a special restricted driver's license to operate only a motor
1-15 vehicle equipped with a device that uses a deep-lung breath
1-16 analysis mechanism. Upon the expiration of a court-ordered
1-17 restriction as provided in this subsection, [receipt of a copy of a
1-18 court order removing the restriction,] the department may re-issue
1-19 [shall issue] a driver's license without the restriction.
1-20 SECTION 2. Section 521.201, Transportation Code, is amended
1-21 to read as follows:
2-1 Sec. 521.201. License Ineligibility in General. The
2-2 department may not issue or renew any license to a person [who:]
2-3 (1) who is under 15 years of age;
2-4 (2) who is under 18 years of age unless the person
2-5 complies with the requirements imposed by Section 521.204;
2-6 (3) who is shown to be addicted to the use of alcohol,
2-7 a controlled substance, or another drug that renders a person
2-8 incapable of driving;
2-9 (4) whose driver's license or privilege has been
2-10 denied, canceled, suspended, or revoked [holds a driver's license
2-11 issued] by this state or another state or country [that is revoked,
2-12 canceled, or under suspension;]
2-13 (5) who has been determined by a judgment of a court
2-14 to be mentally incompetent unless the person has, by the date of
2-15 the license application, been:
2-16 (A) restored to competency by a judicial decree;
2-17 or
2-18 (B) released from a hospital for the mentally
2-19 incompetent on a certificate by the superintendent of the hospital
2-20 that the person is competent;
2-21 (6) who the department determines to be afflicted with
2-22 a mental or physical disability or disease that prevents the person
2-23 from exercising reasonable and ordinary control over a motor
2-24 vehicle while operating the vehicle on a highway, except that a
2-25 person may not be refused a license because of a physical defect if
3-1 common experience shows that the defect does not incapacitate a
3-2 person from safely operating a motor vehicle; or
3-3 (7) who has been reported by a court under Section
3-4 729.003 for failure to appear or for default in payment of a fine
3-5 unless the court has filed an additional report on final
3-6 disposition of the case.
3-7 SECTION 3. Section 523.004, Transportation Code, is amended
3-8 to read as follows:
3-9 Sec. 523.004. Reports of Convictions. The licensing
3-10 authority of a state shall report each conviction of a person from
3-11 another state occurring within its jurisdiction to the licensing
3-12 authority of the home state of the licensee. Such report shall
3-13 clearly identify the person convicted; describe the violation
3-14 specifying the section of the statute, code, or ordinance violated;
3-15 identify the court in which action was taken; indicate whether a
3-16 plea of guilty or not guilty was entered or the conviction was a
3-17 result of the forfeiture of bail, bond, or other security; and
3-18 include any special findings made in connection with the
3-19 conviction. For purposes of this chapter, the United States is
3-20 deemed to be a co-signatory to the Driver's License Compact of
3-21 1995. A conviction or judicial or administrative action of a
3-22 federal or military court or tribunal may be reported to this state
3-23 subject to this chapter.
3-24 SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
3-25 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
4-1 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-2 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-3 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-4 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
4-5 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
4-6 passage, and it is so enacted.