By Naishtat H.B. No. 3342
76R2167 DRH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the eligibility of certain persons to hold a driver's
1-3 license.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 521.201, Transportation Code, is amended
1-6 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 521.201. LICENSE INELIGIBILITY IN GENERAL. The
1-8 department may not issue any license to a person who:
1-9 (1) is under 15 years of age;
1-10 (2) is under 18 years of age unless the person
1-11 complies with the requirements imposed by Section 521.204;
1-12 (3) is shown to be addicted to the use of alcohol, a
1-13 controlled substance, or another drug that renders a person
1-14 incapable of driving;
1-15 (4) holds a driver's license issued by this state or
1-16 another state or country that is revoked, canceled, or under
1-17 suspension;
1-18 (5) has been determined by a judgment of a court to be
1-19 totally incapacitated or incapacitated to act as the operator of a
1-20 motor vehicle [mentally incompetent] unless the person has, by the
1-21 date of the license application, been:
1-22 (A) restored to capacity [competency] by
1-23 judicial decree; or
1-24 (B) released from a hospital for the mentally
2-1 incapacitated [incompetent] on a certificate by the superintendent
2-2 or administrator of the hospital that the person has regained
2-3 capacity [is competent];
2-4 (6) the department determines to be afflicted with a
2-5 mental or physical disability or disease that prevents the person
2-6 from exercising reasonable and ordinary control over a motor
2-7 vehicle while operating the vehicle on a highway, except that a
2-8 person may not be refused a license because of a physical defect if
2-9 common experience shows that the defect does not incapacitate a
2-10 person from safely operating a motor vehicle;
2-11 (7) has been reported by a court under Section 729.003
2-12 for failure to appear or for default in payment of a fine unless
2-13 the court has filed an additional report on final disposition of
2-14 the case; or
2-15 (8) has been reported by a court for failure to appear
2-16 or default in payment of a fine for a misdemeanor that is not
2-17 covered under Subdivision (7) and that is punishable by a fine
2-18 only, including a misdemeanor under a municipal ordinance,
2-19 committed by a person who was under 17 years of age at the time of
2-20 the alleged offense, unless the court has filed an additional
2-21 report on final disposition of the case.
2-22 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-23 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-24 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-25 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-26 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-27 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.