By Isett, Hardcastle, Chisum, Hupp, Palmer,            H.B. No. 676
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to prima facie speed limits for vehicles on highways.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 545.352(b), Transportation Code, is
 1-5     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
1-18     States outside an urban district, including a farm-to-market or
1-19     ranch-to-market road, except as provided by Subdivision (5)(C);
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
1-25     speed limit for the vehicle is not otherwise specified by this
 2-1     section; or
 2-2                 (5)  outside an urban district:
 2-3                       (A)  50 miles per hour if the vehicle is a school
 2-4     bus on a highway other than an interstate highway;
 2-5                       (B)  55 miles per hour if the vehicle is a school
 2-6     bus on an interstate highway; or
 2-7                       (C)  60 miles per hour in daytime and 55 miles
 2-8     per hour in nighttime if:
 2-9                             (i)  the vehicle is a truck, other than a
2-10     light truck, [or if the vehicle is a] truck tractor, trailer, or
2-11     semitrailer, or a vehicle towing a trailer, semitrailer, another
2-12     motor vehicle, or towable recreational vehicle; and
2-13                             (ii)  the vehicle is on a farm-to-market or
2-14     ranch-to-market road.
2-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.