Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I continue to hear that the issue of traffic safety being mentioned as one of the reason that some of the TP&W LE folks thing that there is a need for this bill. I retired from Texas law enforcemnt after 35 years with the last 18 of those years working within the bureaucracy of Texas state government how a lot of this stuff comes about. Since I now reside out-of-state (but I am in the process of trying to move back) I am not currently any of these state legislator's constituent so therefore even though I have written and emailed a number of the members of the Texas House the vast majority of them are not interested in my thoughts on the matter simply because I do not vote in their district. BUT if any of you have found a local state representative who supports our position on this bill you need to encourage him/her to request some data from TP&W LE to support their alleged concerns on traffic safety relating to road cruising. Specificallyn they need to ask TP&W for "verifiable" statistics for a given period of time (ie 2006) showing how many property damage, personal injury and fatal traffic accidents occured throughout Texas during this given period of time that involved individuals collecting reptiles and amphibians on Texas roadways or rights of way. I seriously doubt that they have such "verifiable" statistics. If they don't have them, then they really don't have any factual information to support the "traffic safety" issue. If they do have any such statistics then someone needs to contact Statistical Services at DPS and obtain the numbers for the total numbers for property damage, personal injury and fatal traffic accidents that occured throughout Texas during the same given period of time. DPS will have this information and it is public record. Then when you or your state representative compare the number of herper-related accidents for that time period to the overall number of traffic accidents the impact that this bill will have on traffic accidents is going to be quite evident....there will be little if any impact at all. Traffic safety is a buzz word that gets tossed into a lot of political issues simply because improving traffic safety is something that many of these legislators like to support in order to gain more votes from their local constituents.

Additionally, IF traffic safety is really an issue in this matter, then Texas law enforcement should not need a new law prohibiting road cruising to deal with it. Texas law enforcement simply needs to enforce the existing traffic laws the way they were intended to be enforced....ie parked on roadway, driving on wrong site of road, etc. TP&W Game Wardens are commissioned Texas peace officers and they have the suthority to enforce all the state laws that other Texas peace officers can enforce, including traffic laws. They already have the tools at their disposal to effectively deal with herpers (or anyone else for that matter) who violate traffic laws and create traffic safety concerns.

Now I realize that there are other isues involved in this matter in addition to just traffic safety, but this should help take the air of of their sails if they claim that traffic safety is an issue. And remember that the vast majority of these lawmakers like statistics and numbers.
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Gerald Keown
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

I agree with you on all points. That data (I'm sure) is non-existent. I can think of no two car collisions involving herpers occuring in the 20 years I've been actively road cruising, and only a handful of single car accidents (like when my wife backed my open car door into a road cut and peeled it back LOL). I doubt seriously that TPWD has any data on accidents involving herpers, especially considering the little single car incidents like mine never got reported to anyone other than insurance.

One of the things that I've heard some individuals in TPWD LE say (don't want to make this sound like its an official statement from TPWD) is that since their "mandate" is not to enforce traffic code, then they are only supposed to enforce "wildlife code", unless asked to assist in traffic issues by DPS. One individual officer told me that "if I wrote a traffic citation, my boss would ask me why I was taking time away from my duties pursuing wildlife citations."

Similarly, when I asked John Herron several years ago why TPWD didn't enforce the regulations on the books regarding dumping of gasoline into the ground, he told me that "those are EPA regs, and its not TPWDs job to enforce them" and that "we'd need to put in a 'means of take' regulation prohibiting dumping gasoline into the ground in order for our LE to enforce it". Sounded like bureaucratic jurisdictional BS to me at the time . . . however, this gets to the reason that TPWD LE "asks" for new laws - so that they don't can enforce things under the umbrella of their "mandate" to enforce wildlife code.

Troy

I agree with you completely. Chandler in Isett's office told me this was one reason for the bill, I asked if there was any data to support this, his response(not exact but close), "I am sure there is, I just dont know where."
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South Texas Herps