Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Texas is in the middle of the road when it comes to highway safety legislation — mostly because of a shortage of drunken driving laws, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Although several pending pieces of legislation could change that, lawmakers would have to overcome a perception by some that the measures are overreaching.

Danielle Roeber, deputy director of the National Transportation Safety Board, recently testified for the federal agency at a state House hearing on whether to allow sobriety checkpoints on some Texas streets. The idea was supported by police, transportation agency heads and crash survivors, but it met resistance from the state's libertarian faction.

"There's a lot of resentment at the state level about this stuff being pushed down by the federal government," said Rep. Pete Gallego, chairman of the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, referring to how some view the checkpoint bill that's still sitting in his committee. "It'll be a fight on the floor."

The NTSB keeps a wish list of 16 highway safety recommendations it thinks states should enact, Roeber said. Texas has some of them, and three recommendations — the checkpoint bill, a teen cell phone ban and tougher booster seat requirements — have credible shots at passage this year, lawmakers said.

Gallego, D-Alpine, said he doesn't think the measures are being dictated from Washington, but said he's still undecided about the checkpoint bill, which has already cleared the Senate.

As for any of the proposals passing, there are no guarantees, Gallego said. The session is dwindling, and some of the measures have been repeatedly defeated. (Lawmakers have been proposing checkpoints since 1993).

The prospects are significantly better for the bill that would ban minors from using cell phones while driving, said its House sponsor, Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman. The House and Senate have passed similar versions, and Phillips said it's only a matter of time until one of the two bodies adopts the other's bill.

And even with a fair amount of debate, Rep. Allen Vaught said, his bill to increase age and height requirements for booster seat use should get a vote from the full House next week.

"You have to thread that needle with the 'don't-regulate-me side,' the 'don't-tax-me side' and the 'I-can't-afford-this side' – you have to make them happy," the Dallas Democrat said. "Or make it reasonable for everyone to be happy."

Even if the checkpoint bill passes, Texas would still fall short of the NTSB's recommended driving-while-intoxicated restrictions. The state would have enacted five of NTSB's 11 alcohol-relatedproposals, but the agency wants all states to have eight, a feat achieved only by Virginia, Ohio, Utah, New Hampshire and California, Roeber said.

Still, it'd be a start, Roeber said.

"I think you would definitely be sending a message," she said. "You also have to use them. Putting a law on the book isn't enough."