BILL ANALYSIS
By: Hughes
Committee Report (Substituted)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
In 2001, the Texas Anti-Blocking Statute which prohibits a railroad company from blocking a street or highway for more than ten minutes was determined by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to be preempted by the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995.
In some communities trains commonly block railroad crossings, city streets and state highways for time periods of up to thirty to forty-five minutes creating more than simply a social or economic inconvenience. Many of these occurrences create severe safety hazards by blocking emergency vehicles and forcing such vehicles to make very time consuming detours which inherently jeopardize the efforts of emergency personnel to respond to an emergency. Citations issued to railroad companies in response to these occurrences per Section 471.007 of the Texas Transportation Code have remained unenforceable because of the Court decision referenced above.
In 2005, however, Attorney General Greg Abbott issued GA-0331 in which he noted that the 2001 ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals "acknowledges the possibility that the Texas Legislature might be able to craft a statute regulating blocking to the extent it interferes with state and local law enforcement or emergency response that is not preempted." Because the current wording of Section 471.007 of the Texas Transportation Code criminalizes all blocking occurrences, the statute is preempted. CSHB 1757 would narrow the Texas Anti-Blocking Statute to apply only to the blocking of emergency vehicles. Hopefully this will allow the statute to pass muster in federal court.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 471.007(a) of the Transportation Code.
A. Adds the wording "and as a result, an authorized emergency vehicle, as defined by Section 541.201, is prevented from taking the most direct route to an emergency," in order to make the statute apply only and specifically to railroad blockings that cause emergency vehicles to take an alternate route to an emergency.
SECTION 2. (a) States that the change in law made by HB 1757 will not retroactively apply to any offense that occurs before the effective date of this Act.
(b) States that any offense that occurs before the effective date of this Act falls under the jurisdiction of the law currently in effect on the date the offense was committed.
SECTION 3. States that this Act takes effect September 1, 2007.
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2007.
COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE
SECTION 1. Add language to require that a law enforcement officer issuing a citation under this Section shall deliver a copy of the citation to an employee or agent of the railroad company. Current law requires the officer to affix a copy of the citation to the body of the train.
SECTION 2. No changes.
SECTION 3. No changes.