By: Price (Senate Sponsor - Seliger) H.B. No. 1294
(In the Senate - Received from the House April 29, 2013;
April 30, 2013, read first time and referred to Committee on
Criminal Justice; May 9, 2013, reported adversely, with favorable
Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0;
May 9, 2013, sent to printer.)
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 1294 By: Schwertner
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the dismissal of a charge for the offense of failing to
secure a child in a child passenger safety seat system.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Section 545.4121, Transportation
Code, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 545.4121. DISMISSAL [DEFENSE]; OBTAINING [POSSESSION
OF] CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY SEAT SYSTEM.
SECTION 2. Section 545.4121(b), Transportation Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(b) It is a defense to prosecution of an offense to which
this section applies that the defendant provides to the court
evidence satisfactory to the court that:
(1) at the time of the offense:
(A) the defendant was not arrested or issued a
citation for violation of any other offense;
(B) the defendant did not possess a child
passenger safety seat system in the vehicle; and
(C) the vehicle the defendant was operating was
not involved in an accident; and
(2) subsequent to the time of the offense, the
defendant obtained [the defendant possesses] an appropriate child
passenger safety seat system for each child required to be secured
in a child passenger safety seat system under Section 545.412(a).
SECTION 3. 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 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.
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