By:  Moncrief, Shapiro, Shapleigh                       S.B. No. 60
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the wearing of safety belts by certain vehicle
 1-2     passengers; providing penalties.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsections (b) and (h), Section 545.413,
 1-5     Transportation Code, are amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (b)  A person commits an offense if the person:
 1-7                 (1)  operates a passenger car that is equipped with
 1-8     safety belts; and
 1-9                 (2)  allows a child who is at least four years of age
1-10     but younger than 15 years of age to ride in [the front seat of] the
1-11     vehicle without requiring the child to be secured by a safety belt,
1-12     provided the child is occupying a seat that is equipped with a
1-13     safety belt.
1-14           (h)  In this section:
1-15                 (1)  "Passenger[, "passenger] car" includes a pickup
1-16     truck.
1-17                 (2)  "Safety belt" means a lap belt and any shoulder
1-18     straps included as original equipment on or added to a vehicle
1-19     [with a manufacturer's rated carrying capacity of not more than
1-20     1,500 pounds].
1-21           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
1-22     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-23     Act.  For the purposes of this section, an offense is committed
1-24     before the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense
 2-1     occurs before that date.
 2-2           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
 2-3     Act is governed by the law in effect when the offense was
 2-4     committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
 2-5     purpose.
 2-6           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-7           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.