BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 2420

By: Elkins

Transportation

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Recent changes in legislation have enabled municipalities to ticket motor vehicle owners who drive through red lights with civil penalties rather than criminal citations. Under these laws, municipalities using photographic traffic signal enforcement systems are able to prosecute motor vehicle owners who violate red light traffic laws. These systems photograph violations and send civil penalties through the mail to the registered owner of a vehicle. Interested parties assert that countless complaints have been made by individuals that are receiving notice of a civil penalty for running a red light, when in fact the individual was making a right turn at an intersection enforced by such a system.  H.B. 2420 seeks to address this issue by limiting the instances in which a civil penalty may be imposed on a person operating a motor vehicle at an intersection with a photographic traffic signal enforcement system.

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

H.B. 2420 amends the Transportation Code to prohibit an ordinance implemented by a local authority under statutory provisions relating to photographic traffic signal enforcement systems from imposing a civil penalty on the owner of a motor vehicle that is turning right at an intersection.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.