The 2001 legislative session in the Lone Star state ended with the governor receiving a pair of bills that would affect truck drivers traveling through Texas.
Before adjourning, the legislature sent Gov. Rick Perrya a bill proposing to increase the maximum speed limit on rural interstate highways to 75 mph. The governor has until June 17 to sign the bill (HB229), which will allow the state Transportation Department to conduct studies to determine where speed limits can safely be raised.
Current Texas law provides a maximum lawful speed of 70 mph in daytime for a vehicle on a highway numbered by the state or the United States outside an urban district. Proponents of the bill argued that 10 western states with landscapes and population densities similar to the western part of Texas, including New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arizona, have set 75 mph limits.
Also sent to the governor was a bill that gives law enforcement officials in Dallas County and along the Texas-Mexico border more authority to take trucks off the road. The new law will allow police departments in Dallas County and sheriff's departments in counties along the border to enforce commercial vehicle regulations. Officers would be required to attend courses on traffic and highway law enforcement from enforcing traffic and highway laws. The current law authorizes only certain officers to weigh a vehicle on a state maintained highway or to enforce state and federal standards regarding commercial vehicle safety.
Current law also allows commercial vehicles with a weight tolerance permit to travel over any bridge in the state regardless of the vehicle's weight. SB220 modifies that law so that over-heavy trucks may not operate on any public highway or at a port-of-entry between Texas and Mexico if the vehicle or combination exceeds maximum weight limits.
The bill also calls for the development of a database of roadside vehicle inspection reports for defects on any intermodal equipment, including all citations involving intermodal equipment issued by certified officers. The database would be used to identify violations discovered on intermodal equipment during a roadside inspection. The bill authorizes a certified sheriff or deputy sheriff to detain on a highway or at a port of entry within the territory of the county a motor vehicle that is subject to commercial motor vehicle safety standards.
A bill that would have raised the state fuel tax for truckers and other motorists died before the session adjourned. HB3106, sponsored by Rep. Clyde Alexander, would have increased the state tax rate on gasoline, diesel and liquefied fuel by 5 cents. Part of the money generated by the increase would have been used for to help public school teachers pay for health insurance. A similar bill, SJR27, sponsored by Sen. John Lindsay, also died in session.