By: Hughes  S.B. No. 445
         (In the Senate - Filed January 26, 2021; March 9, 2021, read
  first time and referred to Committee on Transportation;
  March 24, 2021, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 9,
  Nays 0; March 24, 2021, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the use of a flashing warning signal light and certain
  other equipment by a person operating a school bus.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 547.701, Transportation Code, is amended
  by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (c-1) to read as
  follows:
         (c)  When a school bus is being stopped or is stopped on a
  highway to permit students to board or exit the bus, the operator of
  the bus shall activate all flashing warning signal lights and other
  equipment on the bus designed to warn other drivers that the bus is
  stopping to load or unload children.
         (c-1)  A person may not operate [such] a light or other
  equipment described by Subsection (c) except when a school [the]
  bus is being stopped or is stopped on a highway to:
               (1)  permit a student [students] to board or exit the
  bus; or
               (2)  distribute food to a student or the parent or
  guardian of a student.
         SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
  to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
  An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
  governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.  For
  purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
  effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
  before that date.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.
 
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