By Dunnam                                             H.B. No. 2922
         76R8988 DWS-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the offense of obstructing a railroad crossing with a
 1-3     train.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Sections 471.007(a) and (b), Transportation Code,
 1-6     are amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  An officer, agent, servant, or receiver of a railway
 1-8     company commits an offense if the person wilfully obstructs for
 1-9     more than five minutes a street, railroad crossing, or public
1-10     highway by permitting a train to stand on the crossing.  A railway
1-11     company commits an offense if an officer, agent, servant, or
1-12     receiver of the railway company wilfully obstructs for more than
1-13     five minutes a street, railroad crossing, or public highway by
1-14     permitting a train to stand on the crossing.
1-15           (b)  An offense under this section is a misdemeanor
1-16     punishable by a fine of not less than $5 or more than $2,000
1-17     [$100].
1-18           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
1-19     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-20     Act.  For the purposes of this section, an offense is committed
1-21     before the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense
1-22     occurs before that date.
1-23           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-24     Act is governed by the law in effect when the offense was
 2-1     committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
 2-2     purpose.
 2-3           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-4           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.