Youthful Drivers in The Lone Star State Face a More challang

A new law going into effect 9/1/2005 will likely increase the call for for defensive driving online classes as well as onsite classes and defensive driving video rentings & will grow the number of road screenings dispensed by the State of Texas DPS.

Commencing Sept. 1 2005, a drivers safety course will be expected for every automobile operators under age 25 that receive a ticket for a moving violation such as speeding if they want to keep it off their record. This isn't new in that many cities and county already have this requirement. However, many judges in these counties dismiss the class requirement typically in exchange for provisional period in which, if the driver stays clean of any additional Tickets, the original ticket is ignored. More often than not this agreement typically also requires a fee to the municipality in addition to the probationary period.

Authored by Dallas Republican John Carona and introduced as Senate Bill 1005, this new law is even severer for those under eighteen. Automobile operators through the age of Seventeen will be demanded to take a road line 2 text with the Texas DPS in addition to the fine & probation if they want to keep their records clean.

Those with a lot of personal experience with undergoing violations will not be happy with this law as it shuts a loophole. Ahead of this law judges were allowed to excuse operators under the age of 25 who received a traffic ticket from a Online Defensive Driving. Some lawmakers were worried about teens, especially those who were taught to drive by their parents versus state endorsed instructors. To handle this concern, they amended the road line 1 text requirement for those under eighteen.

Prior to Sept. 1 2005, there were two segments that pertain to deferred adjudication of misdemeanours. This merely means that if a driver pleaded "no contest" to the traffic sections and then did not break any more traffic laws for a period of time set by the court, the ticket would be erased from the driver's criminal record. One section of the law specifically treats traffic addresses indicating that a traffic lawbreaker must take an online defensive driving course or attend an guide defensive driving school or class in order to have a fine removed from their record. Misdemeanors are covered in the other section of law allowing judges to define the standard to be reached for "deferred adjudication". Deferred adjudication means: the driver is placed on probation for a length of time & if driver stays ticket free during this period, the original traffic ticket is erased from their record. Deferred adjudication, in addition to the probationary period, usually incurs a fine to the district in which the fine occurred. In many jurisdictions, this second section of the lay has allowed fine to simply fine drivers as long as they didn't get additional citation for some period of time of time like 6 months.

For automobile operators under the age of twenty-five, Texas law SB 1005 eliminates that flexibility & in fact requires those who receive traffic citations & are under 25 to a take defensive driving online or in classroom setting.

The Texas DPS indicated that an figured 21,000 teens will take the road test each year. All state driver's license offices are gearing up to have officers available to conduct more of these tests. DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said that these offices already conduct road screenings now however as this road test has not been required to obtain a driver's license for more than decade, most teens don't take it so more officers will need to be available at each DPS faciltiy. Those that do are usually at the request of their parents. Fortunately for the usually cash strapped young motor vehicle operators, the road trial will only tack on another $10 to their already costly traffic citation experience.

This new law will likely grow the demand for defensive driving online classes in addition to onsite classes and defensive driving video rentals.


About the Author

Cindy Cashman operates Official Defensive Driving where traffic tickets can be eliminated through a defensive driving online course. Go to http://www.OfficialDefensiveDriving.com to Save the time, money and hassle of attending classroom based defensive driving classes.