Drivers urged to be alert as school begins Millions of Texas children are heading back to school this month, as early as this week in some districts. The Texas Department of Transportation urges drivers to be especially alert and focused when driving in school zones and near bus stops. Drivers are further reminded that a new Texas law requires drivers to stop and yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, according to TxDOT. The Lisa Torry Smith Act is named after a young mother killed in Missouri City in a crosswalk as she walked her son to school. The driver received a $50 fine for failing to yield, according to numerous media reports. Now it’s a crime punishable with up to two years in prison.
Ex-trucking owner charged with insurance fraud The former co-owner of Bill Hall Jr. Trucking in Bexar County has been indicted in Travis County for fraud in an alleged scheme to get lower workers compensation insurance premiums by concealing payroll reports. A Texas Department of Insurance news release said the plot allowed the company to avoid more than $9 million in premium payments.
Francis Hall, the former co-owner along with her husband, was previously convicted of murder in 2016 for knocking her husband’s motorcycle off the road in 2013 with her Cadillac Escalade as she chased his lover, who was in another vehicle, on the same stretch of Loop 1604 in San Antonio. She claimed it was an accident, and the jury gave her the shortest possible sentence in that case. She was released two years later in 2018, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
