1-1     By:  Moncrief                                           S.B. No. 60
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed November 17, 1998; January 26, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
 1-4     February 22, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0;
 1-6     February 22, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 60                     By:  Brown
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the wearing of safety belts by certain vehicle
1-11     passengers; providing penalties.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subsections (b) and (h), Section 545.413,
1-14     Transportation Code, are amended to read as follows:
1-15           (b)  A person commits an offense if the person:
1-16                 (1)  operates a passenger car that is equipped with
1-17     safety belts; and
1-18                 (2)  allows a child who is at least four years of age
1-19     but younger than 15 years of age to ride in [the front seat of] the
1-20     vehicle without requiring the child to be secured by a safety belt,
1-21     provided the child is occupying a seat that is equipped with a
1-22     safety belt.
1-23           (h)  In this section:
1-24                 (1)  "Passenger[, "passenger] car" includes a pickup
1-25     truck.
1-26                 (2)  "Safety belt" means a lap belt and any shoulder
1-27     straps included as original equipment on or added to a vehicle
1-28     [with a manufacturer's rated carrying capacity of not more than
1-29     1,500 pounds].
1-30           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
1-31     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-32     Act.  For the purposes of this section, an offense is committed
1-33     before the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense
1-34     occurs before that date.
1-35           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-36     Act is governed by the law in effect when the offense was
1-37     committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
1-38     purpose.
1-39           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-40           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-41     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-42     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-43     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-44     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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