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Texas Transportation Code - Section 545.410. Towing Safety Chains

Legal Research Home > Texas Laws > Transportation Code > Texas Transportation Code - Section 545.410. Towing Safety Chains

§ 545.410. TOWING SAFETY CHAINS.  (a) An operator of a 
passenger car or light truck may not draw a trailer, semitrailer, 
house trailer, or another motor vehicle unless safety chains of a 
type approved by the department are attached in a manner approved by 
the department from the trailer, semitrailer, house trailer, or 
drawn motor vehicle to the drawing vehicle.  This subsection does 
not apply to the drawing of a trailer or semitrailer used for 
agricultural purposes.
	(b)  The department shall adopt rules prescribing the type of 
safety chains required to be used according to the weight of the 
trailer, semitrailer, house trailer, or motor vehicle being drawn.  
The rules shall:
		(1)  require safety chains to be strong enough to 
maintain the connection between the trailer, semitrailer, house 
trailer, or drawn motor vehicle and the drawing vehicle;  and
		(2)  show the proper method to attach safety chains 
between the trailer, semitrailer, house trailer, or drawn motor 
vehicle and the drawing vehicle.
	(c)  Subsection (b) does not apply to trailers, 
semitrailers, or house trailers that are equipped with safety 
chains installed by the original manufacturer before the effective 
date of the rules.
	(d)  This section does not apply to a trailer, semitrailer, 
house trailer, or drawn motor vehicle that is operated in 
compliance with the federal motor carrier safety regulations.
	(e)  In this section, "safety chains" means flexible tension 
members connected from the front of a drawn vehicle to the rear of 
the drawing vehicle to maintain connection between the vehicles if 
the primary connecting system fails.

Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.  Amended 
by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 165, § 30.113(a), eff. Sept. 1, 
1997;  Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1357, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.

Last modified: August 11, 2007