A new law going into effect 9/1/05 will likely increase the
demand for defensive driving
online classes as well as onsite classes and defensive
driving video rentings and will increase the amount of road
tests dealt out by the Lone-Star State Department of Public
Safety.
Commencing Sept. 1 2005, a drivers safety course will be
mandatory for all drivers under age 25 that pick up 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 and
county already have this requirement. However, many judges in
these counties dismiss the class requirement typically in
exchange for provisionary period of time in which, if the driver
stays clean of any more Citations, the original ticket is
ignored. Usually this arrangement generally also carries a fee
to the municipality in addition to the probationary period of
time.
Authored by Dallas Republican John Carona and laid out as Senate
Bill 1005, this new law is even sterner for those under
eighteen. Operators through the age of Seventeen will be
involved to take a road trial with the Texas DPS in addition to
the fine & probation if they want to keep their records clean.
Those with much of experience with getting violations will not
be pleased with this law as it shuts down a loophole. Before
this law judges were allowed to let off drivers under the age of
25 who received a traffic ticket from a Defensive Driving
Course. Some lawmakers were caring about teens, especially
those who were taught to drive by their parents versus tX
licensed instructors. To treat this concern, they amended the
road test requirement for those under eighteen.
Ahead of 1-Sep-05, there were two sections that touch on to
deferred adjudication of misdemeanors. This simply means that if
a driver pleaded “no contest” to the traffic parts & then did
not violate any further traffic laws for a time period set by
the court, the ticket would be erased from the driver’s record.
One part of the law specifically covers traffic cuts across
indicating that a traffic violator must take an online defensive
driving course or attend an alternate 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 and 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 ticket occurred. In many jurisdictions,
this second section of the lay has allowed violation to simply
fine automobile operators as long as they didn’t get another
violation for some time of time like 6 months.
For automobile operators under the age of twenty-five, Texas law
SB 1005 eliminates that flexibility and 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 approximated
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 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 each DPS faciltiy.
Those that do are usually at the request of their parents.
Fortunately for the usually cash strapped young automobile
operators, the road line 3 text will only tack on another $10 to
their already expensive 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.
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.