Young Drivers in The Lone Star State Face a More Difficult Time Brushing off Traffic Violations

By Joe Gerstl

A new law going into effect Sept. 1 2005 will likely increase the need for defensive driving online(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com) courses as well as onsite classes and defensive driving video rentals & will grow the total of road tests administered by the Lone-Star State DPS.

Starting September 1st, a drivers safety course will be called upon for all operators under age 25 that experience 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 & regions already have this requirement. However, many judges in these counties dismiss the class requirement typically in substitution for provisionary time in which, if the driver stays clean of any other Tickets, the original ticket is dropped. Mostly this agreement ordinarily also requires a fee to the municipality in addition to the probationary time.

Authored by Dallas Republican John Carona and presented as Senate Bill 1005, this new law is even more spartan for those under 18. Operators through the age of Seventeen will be called upon to take a road line 3 text with the Texas DPS in addition to the fine & probation if they want to keep their records clean.

Those with a good deal of personal experience with receiving fines will not be pleased with this law as it closes a loophole. Prior to this law judges were allowed to let off drivers under the age of twenty-five who received a traffic fine from a Drivers Education Course(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com). Some lawmakers were caring about teens, specially those who were instructed to drive by their parents versus texas licensed instructors. To site address this concern, they amended the road line 2 text requirement for those under eighteen.

Before Sept. 1st 2005, there were two segments that appertain to deferred adjudication of offenses. This merely means that if a driver pleaded "no contest" to the traffic segments and then did not break any other traffic laws for a period set by the court, the violation would be deleted from the driver's record. One section of the law specifically treats traffic treats indicating that a traffic violator must take an online defensive driving course(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com) or attend an alternate 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 citation free during this period, the original traffic citation is erased from their record. Deferred adjudication, in addition to the probationary period, usually incurs a fine to the district in which the citation occurred. In many jurisdictions, this second section of the lay has allowed ticket to simply fine drivers as long as they didn't get an additional fine for some time period of time like 6 months.

For drivers under the age of twenty-five, Texas law SB 1005 eliminates that flexibility and in fact requires those who receive traffic citations & are under twenty-five to a take defensive driving online(http://www.officialdefensivedriving.com) or in classroom setting.

The Texas Department of Public Safety indicated that an figured 21,000 teens will take the road exam 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 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 each Department of Public Safety faciltiy. Those that do are usually at the request of their parents. Fortunately for the usually cash strapped young motor vehicle operators, the road test 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) classes in addition to onsite classes & 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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