Emergency Responder Travel Bill Passes House, Senate
CSHB 2771 by Rep. Armando Martinez (D-Weslaco), which passed the House on April 28, 2015 in a record vote has been passed by the Senate on May 22, 2015. The bill will be headed to the Governor’s office for his consideration.
The bill provides that the travel of a firefighter or emergency medical personnel en route to an emergency call is considered to be in the course and scope of the firefighter’s or emergency medical personnel ’s employment. Language that would have placed the return trip home in the course and scope of employment was stripped from the bill in the House.
The bill is limited in scope inasmuch as, by its terms, it applies only to firefighters and emergency medical personnel. Arguably though, the passage of this bill reaffirms the general rule as applied to other occupations that travel from home to the place of employment (even where the place of employment is an alternate work site) is not in the course and scope of employment. See Evans v. Illinois Employers Ins., 790 S.W.2d 302 (Tex. 1990).
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