Written by Written by Brian Middleton
Brian Middleton, District Attorney of Fort Bend County, published an article about the Lisa Torry Smith Act in the November 2022 edition of the Texas Bar Journal.
In December 2020, I drafted proposed legislation that was sponsored by state Rep. Ron Reynolds and state Sen. Joan Huffman. The proposed legislation underwent several amendments, but Senate Bill 1055 passed both houses of the Legislature and was sent to Gov. Greg Abbott for signature on May 29, 2021. Abbott signed the law, titled The Lisa Torry Smith Act, on June 18, 2021.
The Lisa Torry Smith Act amended Section 544.007 of the Texas Transportation Code to require drivers to “stop and yield the right of way to pedestrians lawfully in the intersection or an adjacent crosswalk.”