By: Parker S.B. No. 826
(In the Senate - Filed January 16, 2025; February 13, 2025,
read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
April 3, 2025, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 7,
Nays 0; April 3, 2025, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the operation of a motor vehicle in a school crossing
zone while intoxicated; increasing a criminal penalty.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 49.04, Penal Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (e) to read as
follows:
(b) Except as provided by Subsections (c), [and] (d), and
(e) and Section 49.09, an offense under this section is a Class B
misdemeanor, with a minimum term of confinement of 72 hours.
(e) If it is shown on the trial of an offense under this
section that at the time of the offense the person was operating the
motor vehicle in a school crossing zone during the time the reduced
speed limit applies to the zone, the offense is a state jail felony.
In this subsection, "school crossing zone" has the meaning assigned
by Section 541.302, Transportation Code.
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, 2025.
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