Youthful Drivers in The Lone Star State Face a More Difficult Time Dismissing Traffic Citations

By Joe Gerstl

A new law going into effect 9/1/05 will likely increase the require for defensive driving online(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com) classes in addition to onsite courses and defensive driving video rentings and will grow the total of road tests dealt out by the TX Dept. of Public Safety.

Initiating 1-Sep-05, a drivers safety course will be involved for 100% operators under age twenty-five that pick up a ticket for a moving ticket such as speeding if they want to keep it off their record. This isn't new in that many cities and parishes already have this requirement. However, many judges in these counties dismiss the class requirement typically in substitution for provisionary cycle in which, if the driver stays clean of any more Citations, the original ticket is dismissed. In general this understanding ordinarily also packs a fee to the municipality in addition to the probationary cycle.

Authored by Dallas Republican John Carona and posed as Senate Bill 1005, this new law is even more hard-and-fast for those under 18. Motor vehicle operators through the age of Seventeen will be needed to take a road end line text 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 personal experience with incurring violations will not be delighted with this law as it shuts a loophole. Prior to this law judges were allowed to exempt drivers under the age of 25 who received a traffic fine from a Drivers Safety Class(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com). Some lawmakers were concerned about teens, especially those who were instructed to drive by their parents versus state endorsed teachers. To site address this concern, they amended the road end line text requirement for those under 18.

Ahead of September 1st, there were two parts that bear on to deferred adjudication of misdemeanors. This just means that if a driver pleaded "no contest" to the traffic sections & then did not violate any further traffic laws for a time set by the court, the fine would be effaced from the driver's criminal record. One division of the law specifically covers traffic citations indicating that a traffic violator must take an online defensive driving course(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com) or attend an alternative defensive driving school or course of instruction in order to have a ticket 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 violation 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 violation to simply fine motor vehicle operators as long as they didn't get a second citation for some 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 and are under 25 to a take defensive driving online(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com) or in classroom setting.

The Texas DPS indicated that an estimated 21,000 teens will take the road trial 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 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 both DPS faciltiy. Those that do are usually at the request of their parents. Fortunately for the usually cash strapped young operators, the road line 2 text will only tack on another $10 to their already costly traffic citation experience.

This new law will likely increase the demand for defensive driving online(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com) courses as well as onsite courses and defensive driving(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com) video rentals.

About the author:
Cindy Cashman operates Official Defensive Driving and provides online defensive driving courses. Save the time, money and hassle of attending defensive driving classes. Go to http://www.OfficialDefensiveDriving.comto sign up for an online defensive driving course.


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