2019S0388-T 03/07/19
By: Hall S.B. No. 2144
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to creating the offense of causing an accident resulting
in personal injury or death while operating a motor vehicle without
a license; providing a penalty.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 521.021, Transportation Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 521.021. LICENSE REQUIRED. (a) A person, other than
a person expressly exempted under this chapter, may not operate a
motor vehicle on a highway in this state unless the person holds a
driver's license issued under this chapter.
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (c), a person who is
involved in an accident covered by Section 550.021 while operating
a motor vehicle in violation of Subsection (a) commits an offense.
An offense under this subsection:
(1) involving an accident resulting in:
(A) the death of a person is a felony of the
second degree; or
(B) serious bodily injury, as defined by Section
1.07, Penal Code, to a person is a felony of the third degree; and
(2) involving an accident resulting in injury to which
Subdivision (1) does not apply is punishable by:
(A) imprisonment in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice for not more than five years or confinement in the
county jail for not more than one year;
(B) a fine not to exceed $5,000; or
(C) both the fine and the imprisonment or
confinement.
(c) It is an affirmative defense to liability under
Subsection (b) that the person operating a motor vehicle in
violation of Subsection (a) at the time of the violation held a
driver's license that was suspended under Section 708.152.
(d) Subsection (b) does not apply to a person operating a
motor vehicle in violation of Subsection (a) who, at the time of the
violation, held a driver's license that was suspended under Section
708.152.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.