Drivers who were suspected of driving under the influence used to have the ability to refuse to submit to a breathalyzer test or a blood test for law enforcement agencies to determine the blood alcohol content at the time of an incident if the agency was unable to obtain a warrant. Since September 1, 2009, however, there are several situations where a warrant won’t be needed before a patrol man or trooper can ask for…

Long-time drivers who have completed training at Texas driving schools may remember around 2000 when it was still legal for passengers to drink alcoholic beverages as long as they weren’t near the driver. However, the federal government required states to pass new open container laws in order to continue to receive highway maintenance funding, and many drivers in Texas still don’t have a strong grasp of what the new rules entail. First, any container that’s…

If you’ve just retired and are wondering what’s going to happen as you continue to drive in Texas, you may not have realized that a law passed in 2007 affects how you’ll be able to renew your license and registration. First, there are no mandatory tests for senior Texans if they do not want them. However the law has made it a requirement to go to the local motor vehicles center for license renewals and…

If you aren’t a big follower of what goes on in the Texas State Legislature, you may not have heard about three new laws that affect driving with cell phones, or with younger children. In fact, since the fall of 2009, cell phone usage in school zones has been severely restricted as has usage by those under the age of 18. In school zones, it is now a statewide law that unless the vehicle is…

Truckers generally spend more time on the road than almost any other motorist except perhaps traveling salesmen. The simple numbers that they cover in a given year mean that they are more likely to get in an accident than other drivers, but the numbers can seem staggering. Nationwide, some 600 semi-tractor trailer drivers die each year as a result of an automotive collision, and in Texas they were involved in more than 400 crashes causing…

Texas faced a serious problem. Although it offered the ability to go to driving schools in the state for motorist education, the fatality rate for teens was highest in the nation.After more than a year on the books, state officials say that the accident rate for teen drivers resulting in deaths has dropped by more than one-third between 2002 and 2007, and the new laws in place since 2009 are expected to reduce that even…

You may vaguely remember that the penalties for certain dangerous driving citations, such as operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, can range into the thousands of dollars from classes at an approved Texas driving online course. The number of motorists it now affects, however, ranges into the hundreds of thousands. In fact, more than one million residents are at risk of losing their license because they have failed to pay roughly $1 billion in violation…

It’s funny, there’s a lot of press attention given to cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Toyota Prius, hybrid cars that are likely to increase fuel mileage and put less of a dent in your wallet, but there’s little attention paid to the flesh-and-bones machine that pilots each vehicle. You can look at a list of top 10 green vehicles and see the Prius, alongside Honda’s Insight. Both deliver stellar performance with more than…

Defensive driving courses are usually found with curricula designed to teach how to drive safely, and in classrooms there are also some grim tales of the results of drunk driving to go along with evocative photos. While tactics like these to show the grim realities of what can happen when someone is driving while intoxicated have been around for years, officals at the Midlands Adult Probation Office have taken that a step further. In a…

The mudslides throughout the north of Texas are making it difficult for drivers to make their way, even on interstates like I-30 near Grand Prairie. But it’s also taxing TxDOT’s budget as well as its labor force. Projected costs for fixing the roadways there could be about $1 million, and the maintenance crews sorting out the messes aren’t able to work on other needed projects throughout the state. Spokespeople for the agency have noted that…