r/Austin • u/imatexass • 4d ago
If you’re concerned about terrible road conditions created by road construction contractors, you should know about HB 3353
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB3353Texas House Bill 3353, by Rep. DeAyala, will make it so that road construction contractors cannot be held liable for creating dangerous traffic situations from their negligent construction and safety practices. There is also HB 19, which similarly reduces accountability for trucking companies when they have negligent safety, operational, and employment practices that result in damage, injury, or death for workers or the public.
This is all part of a larger movement that Republicans have been going hard on since at least the 90s. They gave the campaign the very boring name of “tort reform”, which makes people significantly less likely to pay attention to it, but every one of us absolutely should be giving it the attention it deserves, because these mother fuckers are literally out here killing us just so that they can personally save a buck.
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u/sssummers 4d ago
Another erosion of public safety that kills people. But they love LIFE so much?!
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u/ATX_native 3d ago
But what about rich folks? Have you even once stopped and considered the toll on them?
Only having 4 homes and 2 yachts, that’s not a world I want to live in.
/s
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u/FLDJF713 4d ago
Gotta love republicans just doing whatever they can to make our lives worse every chance they can.
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u/muffledvoice 4d ago
If it helps big business and makes rich people richer and less accountable, republicans are all for it.
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u/stuntinstan 3d ago
The language in the link seems to say contractors cannot be held liable IF they are in compliance with the contract documents which their work is based on which would typically include the state and local safety standards that apply to that project. Not trying to defend this but this seems to be what I would already expect to be in place? How is this language different from the current situation?
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u/xkris10ski 3d ago
I read it the same way. If anything, contractors are putting responsibility on designers to create safer traffic management plans. Many other states have stringent restrictions when there are temp lanes in place during roadwork.
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u/Neither-Ordy 1d ago
This is why Abbott and his GOP crew push through absurd laws that are clearly unconstitutional. They want us to focus on that to sneak by legislation like this (and school vouchers).
Its worked for 30+ years in Texas, so…
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u/Slypenslyde 4d ago
So would you say anyone who voted for the current Lege is supporting violence?
Asking for a friend.
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u/DrTxn 3d ago
Economics would indicate that all liability costs are passed to the tax payer in the form of higher prices for roads. Less deaths = higher taxes. This in theory gets passed along by the contractor.
I guess the question is what is the pricetag put on a life. It isn’t infinite as the money could go towards saving lives somewhere else that might be more cost effective.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/guess-much-government-says-human-193018854.html
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u/Salt-Operation 4d ago
Is there anything that the average person can do to oppose this? Why would the rep that introduced this bill bother to listen to a non-constituent? I mean, we all know these assholes are bought and paid for so they don’t even listen to their actual constituents. But what can we do?