By Walker                                              H.B. No. 385
         76R758 WP-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to speed limits for school buses.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Sections 545.352(b) and (c), Transportation Code,
 1-5     are amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (b)  Unless a special hazard exists that requires a slower
 1-7     speed for compliance with Section 545.351(b), the following speeds
 1-8     are lawful:
 1-9                 (1)  30 miles per hour in an urban district on a street
1-10     other than an alley and 15 miles per hour in an alley;
1-11                 (2)  70 miles per hour in daytime and 65 miles per hour
1-12     in nighttime if the vehicle is a passenger car, motorcycle,
1-13     passenger car or light truck towing a trailer bearing a vessel, as
1-14     defined by  Section 31.003, Parks and Wildlife Code, that is less
1-15     than 26 feet in length, or passenger car or light truck towing a
1-16     trailer or semitrailer designed and used primarily to transport
1-17     livestock, on a highway numbered by this state or the United States
1-18     outside an urban district, including a farm-to-market or
1-19     ranch-to-market road;
1-20                 (3)  60 miles per hour in daytime and 55 miles per hour
1-21     in nighttime if the vehicle is a passenger car or motorcycle on a
1-22     highway that is outside an urban district and not a highway
1-23     numbered by this state or the United States;
1-24                 (4)  60 miles per hour outside an urban district if a
 2-1     speed limit for the vehicle is not otherwise specified by this
 2-2     section; or
 2-3                 (5)  outside an urban district:
 2-4                       (A)  50 miles per hour if the vehicle is a school
 2-5     bus on a highway other than an interstate highway, except as
 2-6     provided by Subsection (c);
 2-7                       (B)  55 miles per hour if the vehicle is a school
 2-8     bus on an interstate highway, except as provided by Subsection (c);
 2-9     or
2-10                       (C)  60 miles per hour in daytime and 55 miles
2-11     per hour in nighttime if the vehicle is a truck, other than a light
2-12     truck, or if the vehicle is a truck tractor, trailer, or
2-13     semitrailer, or a vehicle towing a trailer, semitrailer, another
2-14     motor vehicle or towable recreational vehicle.
2-15           (c)  The speed limits for a bus or other vehicle engaged in
2-16     the business of transporting passengers for compensation or hire,
2-17     for a commercial vehicle used as a highway post office vehicle for
2-18     highway post office service in the transportation of United States
2-19     mail, for a school bus transporting students and necessary
2-20     personnel on extracurricular activities, and for a light truck are
2-21     the same  as required for a passenger car at the same time and
2-22     location.   
2-23           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-24           SECTION 3.  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.