(SUGAR LAND) - The Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office has announced the arrest of Bao Giang on Friday, Sept. 22, believed to be the first under the Lisa Torry Smith Act, commonly referred to as the Crosswalk Law. The Sugar Land Police Department responded to an auto-pedestrian crash in the New Territory subdivision, which resulted in the death of the pedestrian.
The law is named after Lisa Torry Smith, who lost her life to a motorist in a Fort Bend County crosswalk while walking her son to school in 2017. The law makes it an offense to fail to yield right of way to a pedestrian in a clearly marked crosswalk and requires drivers to come to a full stop for any pedestrians or cyclists who are in the intersection. It is a felony offense for a motorist to cause serious bodily injury to a pedestrian legally in a crosswalk.
Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton drafted the proposed law and convinced State Representative Ron Reynolds and State Senator Joan Huffman to sponsor the legislation in the 2021 Texas Legislature. The legislation received bi-partisan support and was signed into law by Governor Abbott on June 18, 2021.
“We have a real problem in our county,” said District Attorney Brain Middleton. “We are hearing multiple reports of motorists completely ignoring pedestrians in crosswalks across the county, including children in school zones. I pushed this in the media and had my investigators enforce the law at local schools within the past two weeks alone. Our county is better than this. Drive respectfully and responsibly and save lives.”