§ 84.0061.Organizational Liability for Transportation Services Provided to Certain Welfare Recipients

A targeted provision for one welfare-to-work function.

A religious charitable organization that owns or leases a motor vehicle is not liable for damages arising from the negligent use of the vehicle by a person to whom the organization has entrusted it to provide transportation services to a person who receives financial or nutritional assistance under the Human Resources Code and is participating in or applying to participate in a work or employment activity or the food stamp employment and training program.

Transportation services include transport to and from the work, employment, or training activity and to the provider of child-care services necessary for the person to participate.

The barrier addressed is practical. A congregation willing to drive people to work faces liability for entrusting a vehicle to a volunteer driver, and that exposure is enough to stop the programme.

The child-care clause matters — transport to work is useless to a parent who cannot get a child to daycare first, and the section covers both legs.

Subsection (e) is the exception: the section does not apply to any claim where the operator of the vehicle was intoxicated as the Penal Code defines it.

Subsection (d) preserves everything else: the section does not affect other legal duties or causes of action arising from use of a motor vehicle, including the condition of the vehicle itself and claims under the damages chapter. Negligent maintenance and exemplary damages claims are untouched.