A new law going into effect September 1st will likely grow the call for for defensive driving online classes as well as onsite courses and defensive driving video rentals and will increase the amount of road tests shelled out by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Commencing 1-Sep-05, a drivers safety course will be mandatory for 100% automobile operators under age twenty-five that get 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 metropolises & county already have this requirement. However, many judges in these counties dismiss the class requirement typically in substitution for provisional time in which, if the driver stays clean of any other Fines, the original ticket is disregarded. By and large this arrangement commonly also requires a fee to the municipality in addition to the probationary time.
Authored by Dallas Republican John Carona and delivered as Senate Bill 1005, this new law is even sterner for those under 18. Motor vehicle operators through the age of 17 will be called upon to take a road exam with the Texas Department of Public Safety in addition to the fine and probation if they want to keep their records clean.
Those with very much of experience with encountering citations will not be happy with this law as it ends a loophole. Prior to this law judges were allowed to excuse automobile operators under the age of twenty-five who received a traffic ticket from a Online Defensive Driving Class. Some lawgivers were concerned about teens, especially those who were instructed to drive by their parents versus tX qualified teachers. To address this concern, they amended the road trial requirement for those under 18.
Before September 1st, there were two divisions that relate to deferred adjudication of misdemeanors. This only means that if a driver pleaded "no contest" to the traffic divisions and then did not violate any further traffic laws for a period of time set by the court, the violation would be wiped off from the driver's record. One part of the law specifically covers traffic treats indicating that a traffic violator must take an online defensive driving course or attend an alternative defensive driving school or course 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 violation 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 violation occurred. In many jurisdictions, this second section of the lay has allowed citation to simply fine automobile operators as long as they didn't get a second citation for some cycle of time like 6 months.
For operators under the age of twenty-five, Texas law SB 1005 eliminates that flexibility & in fact requires those who receive traffic citations and are under 25 to a take defensive driving online or in classroom setting.
The Texas Dept. of Public Safety indicated that an forecasted 21,000 teens will take the road line 3 text each year. All state driver's license offices are gearing up to have officers available to conduct more of these screenings. DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange stated that these offices already conduct road tests 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 every Dept. of Public Safety faciltiy. Those that do are usually at the request of their parents. Fortunately for the usually cash strapped young operators, the road end line text will only tack on another $10 to their already pricey traffic citation experience.
This new law will likely increase the demand for defensive driving online courses as well as onsite courses & defensive driving video rentals.
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.