New Texas Traffic Laws Email is a Hoax
Texas Department of Public Safety
Alert to the Public
False information has been circulating regarding new traffic laws. There are no new traffic laws going into effect in July. More specifically, there are no new laws going into effect in July related to cell phones, seat belts or carpooling. No cell phone bills were passed this Legislative session. (This misinformation started as the result of an inaccurate e-mail and incorrect information on various Web sites.) DPS has not compiled a list of new traffic laws going into effect in September at this time.
Just a quick note. If you received an email like the one I received below about new Texas traffic laws starting July 1st it is a hoax. Mine showed up late last night and my husband read it first and was annoyed until I found the Alert on the DPS website.
Subject: NEW TICKET LAWS AS OF JULY 1 FOR TEXAS DRIVERS In case you did not know this.
Heads up to Texas drivers as new laws go into effect this Sunday…..
We will need to get hands free attachments for the cell phone, take a look
at the others as well.Starting July 07..
1. Carpool lane - 1st time $1068.50 starting 7/1/07 (The $271 posted on
the highway is old). Don’t do it again because 2nd time is going to be
double. 3rd time triple, and 4th time license suspended.2. Incorrect lane change - $380. Don’t cross the lane on solid lines or
intersections.3. Block intersection - $485
4. Driving on the shoulder - $450
5. Cell phone use in the construction zone. - Double fine as of 7/1/07.
Cell phone use must be “hands free” while driving.
6. Passengers over 18 not in their seatbelts - both passengers and drivers
get tickets .7. Speeders can only drive 3 miles above the limit.
8. DUI = JAIL (Stays on your driving record for 10 years!)
9. As of 07/01/07 cell phone use must be “hands free” while driving.
Ticket is $285. They will be looking for this like crazy - easy money for police department.
Not to point to the obvious but number 7 should have been a dead give away. The speed limits are the speed limits and while I know a lot of you think there is wiggle room there really isn’t. If it says 55 then 58 and 59 is speeding and you can be ticketed. Most police officers won’t stop someone for a few miles over the speed limit but Texas would not make a law saying only 3 miles over the speed limit was legal. They set the speed limits and if they wanted it to be 58 or 68 it would have been set to that.
Have a happy and safe 4th of July everyone.
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Filed under: DPS, Hoax, July 1, New ticket laws, Texas Traffic Laws, Texas drivers, cell phones
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Thanks for posting this. This email has been floating around in one form or another for many years. It’s funny how some people want this law to pass so badly that they’ll resort to misinformation and rumor to change driver’s habits. I don’t believe it’s up to the government to tell me whether or not it is safe to use a cell phone while I’m driving. The individual is ultimately responsible for that decision. What are we, babies?
Anthony, part of the governments role is to protect others from your irresponsible behavior. If your actions (DUI, putting on makeup while driving, irresponsible cell phone usage) endangers other humans, it is certainly every governments responsibilities to enforce consequences for that irresponsible behavior.
David
P.S. If you are a Mythbusters fan, they have a good episode on driving impairment resulting from cell phone usage & drinking while driving.
David thanks for your input. You’re right, part of the government’s role IS to protect us; however, the argument lies with where one chooses to draw the line. For example, you may choose your music while driving; looking down for a CD case or scrolling through your IPOD, all of which would take just as much time as dialing a phone number on your cell phone — should we also include changing music while driving in the law? More accidents happen at night even though there are fewer cars on the road — should we ban night time driving? We could name many things that would be just as irresponsible as dialing a cell phone while driving, but by outlawing all of them we create a precedence that could end in all of us living in a “rubber-padded†society with very limited freedoms.
When you were issued your driver’s license, your state deemed you capable of making responsible decisions while operating a motor vehicle. Therefore, it is EVERY driver’s responsibility to use common sense while driving. So if you cannot use your phone and drive, please, for the sake of the rest of us, put the phone down.
P.S. The cell phone law specifically identifies TIME away from looking at the road as the impetus for the law, not driving and talking as the Mythbusters episode that you mentioned covered. You may want to make a note of this: One of the things mentioned in the episode is that you CAN put down a cell phone instantly, but you CANNOT become instantly “un-drunk.”
Hi Anthony,
You know I agree with you in theory.
The problem lies with no one should be doing any of those things WHILE driving and I am not sure why people don’t understand that. You are using changing a cd and scrolling through an ipod as a normal thing to do while driving and it isn’t. You entire job while driving is to pay attention to driving, not to make sure you are listening to the “tunes” you want to. Maybe that is where we go wrong because obviously we aren’t getting it through to drivers that their only concern while driving should be the driving.
Just in case you feel you are one of those drivers that has no problems on the phone and driving believe me you are wrong. Everyone can pick out the people who are driving and on their phones at the same time even if they are using wireless just by the way they drive. Take a day off from your cell phone and look around you on the road and I bet you can pick them out too.
Hey Dig I’m glad that you agree. However I apologize, maybe my response wasn’t as clear. I RARELY use a cell phone while driving. So yes, I do see people on the road that shouldn’t be on the phone. The only reason that I have an opinion on this proposed law since I’m not really affected by it one way or the other is that it could perpetuate our society’s increasingly litigious tendencies.
If you don’t believe that at least 9 out of every 10 drivers are doing something other than paying their ENTIRE attention to the road, you’re kidding yourself.
Hi again Anthony,
It isn’t even really a proposed law. It was just a hoax email. The legislature isn’t in session right now and while I am sure we might see some bills coming up about this in the future it isn’t a worry at this point. So many bills get filed and most of them don’t even get to be heard by the legislature so until there is a reason to worry I wouldn’t think about it.
I am not understanding how a law about using hand-free cell phones would perpetuate our society’s increasingly litigious tendencies. If you look at what our legislatures have done it is much, much harder to sue anyone about anything now than it was 10 years ago so I think maybe I am just not seeing the connection. Now, I would say if someone is hurt because of a drivers cell phone usage there is a good chance there will be a lawsuit with or without a law. Maybe there is a connection that I am not seeing so please explain.
Hi Dig, yeah, I know the email’s a hoax.
SB 154 authored by Jeff Wentworth is trying to gain momentum. Most of the people I talk to know nothing about it. It’s good to inform.
I agree that if someone is harmed by another’s negligent driving there are grounds for litigation; however, just because someone is on the phone while this happens doesn’t instantly make them the guilty party. If SB 154 were to become law, that argument would be a more difficult one to make. That may clear the way for more litigation in the “it’s not my fault†society in which we live.
I wish it were true that it is harder to sue people today than it was 10 years ago, I know we would like that to be the case, but we’re just not there yet. SB 154 would be taking a step in the opposite direction.
People are getting sued for just about everything. Here’s a link to the latest “oh, brother†suit I’ve seen.
http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/428/story/88430.html
Hi again Anthony,
The session is over. SB 154 is dead and will remain dead since another bill will have to filed when the new session starts. There is of course a good chance the Jeff Wentworth will author the exact same bill next time around but there is no worry of that right now. There is tons of legislation that goes through over and over again without ever being even close to becoming law. It is the nature of the legislature to have more work then they can possibly finish in the time allotted. If you pay attention you will see that bills like SB 154 come and go and very seldom does anything ever come of them. Representatives author bills all the time with no thought of them actually becoming laws. They want to appease a group in their area and so they can say they filed it and come out looking like they are doing something when really they are not.
I still don’t see the connection. If someone is litigious they will be litigious no matter what the laws say. Now, the people making driving more dangerous for me and mine because they just can’t wait five minutes to talk to someone is something that needs to be addressed. I don’t actually have an answer. I can live without another law about how to drive but how do you get the message across to drivers that they don’t have the right to put the rest of us at risk because they can’t be out of touch for the length of a drive?
We have passed tons of tort reform in the last 10 years so while you might still see “oh, brother” lawsuits it really is harder than it used to be.