1-1 By: Naishtat (Senate Sponsor - Wentworth) H.B. No. 3342
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 1999;
1-3 May 12, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on State
1-4 Affairs; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
1-5 Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the eligibility of certain persons to hold a driver's
1-9 license.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Section 521.201, Transportation Code, is amended
1-12 to read as follows:
1-13 Sec. 521.201. LICENSE INELIGIBILITY IN GENERAL. The
1-14 department may not issue any license to a person who:
1-15 (1) is under 15 years of age;
1-16 (2) is under 18 years of age unless the person
1-17 complies with the requirements imposed by Section 521.204;
1-18 (3) is shown to be addicted to the use of alcohol, a
1-19 controlled substance, or another drug that renders a person
1-20 incapable of driving;
1-21 (4) holds a driver's license issued by this state or
1-22 another state or country that is revoked, canceled, or under
1-23 suspension;
1-24 (5) has been determined by a judgment of a court to be
1-25 totally incapacitated or incapacitated to act as the operator of a
1-26 motor vehicle [mentally incompetent] unless the person has, by the
1-27 date of the license application, been:
1-28 (A) restored to capacity [competency] by
1-29 judicial decree; or
1-30 (B) released from a hospital for the mentally
1-31 incapacitated [incompetent] on a certificate by the superintendent
1-32 or administrator of the hospital that the person has regained
1-33 capacity [is competent];
1-34 (6) the department determines to be afflicted with a
1-35 mental or physical disability or disease that prevents the person
1-36 from exercising reasonable and ordinary control over a motor
1-37 vehicle while operating the vehicle on a highway, except that a
1-38 person may not be refused a license because of a physical defect if
1-39 common experience shows that the defect does not incapacitate a
1-40 person from safely operating a motor vehicle;
1-41 (7) has been reported by a court under Section 729.003
1-42 for failure to appear or for default in payment of a fine unless
1-43 the court has filed an additional report on final disposition of
1-44 the case; or
1-45 (8) has been reported by a court for failure to appear
1-46 or default in payment of a fine for a misdemeanor that is not
1-47 covered under Subdivision (7) and that is punishable by a fine
1-48 only, including a misdemeanor under a municipal ordinance,
1-49 committed by a person who was under 17 years of age at the time of
1-50 the alleged offense, unless the court has filed an additional
1-51 report on final disposition of the case.
1-52 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-53 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-54 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-55 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-56 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-57 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-58 * * * * *