BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

 

C.S.H.B. 473

By: Smith, Todd

Criminal Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Substituted)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

Concerned parties report that Texas leads the nation in drunk driving fatalities, with approximately 1,200 such fatalities in a recent year; those fatalities represent nearly 40 percent of all traffic fatalities in the state that year.  It is further reported that repeat drunk drivers account for nearly one-third of the drunk driving population.  Studies have shown that requiring the use of ignition interlock devices significantly reduces the number of repeat drunk driving offenses.

 

Currently, a court in Texas must require certain defendants convicted of and placed on community supervision for certain intoxication offenses to have an ignition interlock device installed in the defendant's vehicle if the defendant has been previously convicted of a certain intoxication offense or has a blood alcohol concentration of 0.15 or more during a single intoxication offense.  While judges have the discretion to require first-time offenders to have ignition interlock devices installed, they are not required to do so. 

 

Interested parties contend that requiring the installation of ignition interlock devices in the vehicles of first-time offenders may help reduce the number of fatalities resulting from drinking and driving in Texas. C.S.H.B. 473 seeks to address the problem of drunk driving fatalities by requiring a court to require as a condition of community supervision that certain first-time intoxication offenders have an ignition interlock device installed in their vehicles. 

 

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

 

C.S.H.B. 473 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to require, rather than authorize, a court to require as a condition of community supervision that a person convicted of a certain intoxication offense have an ignition interlock device installed on the motor vehicle owned or most regularly driven by the person and makes conforming changes.  The bill removes the offense of operating or installing an amusement ride from the applicable intoxication offenses and from the intoxication offenses for which a conviction of and placement on community supervision results in the driver's license suspension of a defendant who was younger than 21 years of age at the time of the offense.

 

C.S.H.B. 473 amends the Transportation Code to require a judge to restrict a person whose driver's license has been suspended after a conviction of an intoxication offense, excluding assembling or operating an amusement ride while intoxicated, to the operation of a motor vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock device. The bill makes conforming changes in provisions of law providing a judge discretion in ordering the installation of such a device based on certain previous convictions. 

 

C.S.H.B. 473 requires a manufacturer of an ignition interlock device approved by the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to pay an amount not less than $500, as determined by DPS, to cover the costs incurred by DPS in approving the device, rather than to reimburse DPS for such cost. The bill requires each manufacturer of an approved device to annually pay to DPS a reasonable amount not less than $500, as determined by DPS, to help defray costs incurred in complying with ignition interlock device evaluation and in administering provisions of law relating to occupational driver's licenses and removes the requirement that DPS assess the cost of preparing the evaluation equally against each such manufacturer. The bill, in the requirement that a vendor of ignition interlock devices who conducts business in Texas reimburse DPS for costs of conducting each inspection of the vendor's facilities to ensure compliance with the minimum standards adopted by DPS for such vendors, sets the amount of such reimbursement at a reasonable amount not less than $450, as determined by DPS.

 

C.S.H.B. 473 changes the effective date of a person's occupational license from the 91st day to the 45th day after the effective date of a person's driver's license suspension under provisions of law relating to failure to pass an intoxication test and implied consent if the person's license has been suspended as a result of an alcohol-related or drug-related enforcement contact during the five years preceding the date of the person's arrest. The bill changes the effective date of a person's occupational license from the first anniversary of the effective date of the person's driver's license suspension under provisions of law relating to failure to pass an intoxication test and implied consent to the 45th day after the effective date of that suspension if the person's driver's license was suspended as a result of a second or subsequent conviction of driving while intoxicated, intoxication assault, or intoxication manslaughter committed within five years of the date on which the most recent preceding offense was committed. The bill includes the offense of driving while intoxicated with a child passenger among those offenses.  The bill removes a provision of law regarding the effect of a driver's license suspension as a result of a conviction of a certain intoxication offense during the preceding five years on the effective date of an occupational license. The bill redefines "alcohol-related or drug-related enforcement contact" to exclude from that term, for purposes of provisions of law relating to the effective date of an occupational license, references to an offense prohibiting the operation of a watercraft while intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance. 

 

C.S.H.B. 473 provides a short title, the Nicole "Lilly" Lalime Act, for purposes of citing its provisions.  The bill provides that its provisions relating to the effective date of an occupational license apply only to a person who applies for an occupational driver's license on or after September 1, 2011. The bill makes conforming changes. 

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

September 1, 2011.

 

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

 

C.S.H.B. 473 contains a provision not included in the original providing a short title, the Nicole "Lilly" Lalime Act, for purposes of citing its provisions.

 

C.S.H.B. 473 contains provisions not included in the original requiring manufacturers and vendors of ignition interlock devices to pay to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) certain costs incurred by DPS in approving and evaluating the devices, administering occupational driver's licenses, and inspecting vendor's facilities.    The substitute differs from the original in nonsubstantive ways.