Bill Text: TX SB2144 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: 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.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-03-21 - Referred to Criminal Justice [SB2144 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-SB2144-Introduced.html
2019S0388-T 03/07/19 | ||
By: Hall | S.B. No. 2144 |
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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. |