Indeed. Many of the CDL applicants here are bus operators, all of which are required to stop for railroad crossings. Only difference is that school buses must open the main door and transit/highway coaches do not have to open the main door. I think they only tell Hazmat applicants to operate the vehicle as if they are carrying Hazmat materials. Hauling Hazmat materials has a completely different set of rules to live by. Motorcoaches and buses are only permitted to carry specific classes of Hazmat in very limited quantities-I'd have to dig out my regs to refresh my memory. Buses carrying hazmat under those conditions do not require a Hazmat endorsement to operate, but the container must be properly marked.

However, the crossing is located so close to the DOT yard that there's no space for the driver to build up any speed to speak of. You might get up to twenty miles an hour, depentant on the weight of the vehicle. I was driving a Type C school bus.

I also seem to remember that you are not to shift gears while on the crossing.
Al

An interesting lesson here. When operating a rail speeder under NARCOA rules, you are to flag a grade crossing as the speeders pass. When the last speeder goes by, you are not supposed to wave the cars past, but only to drop the flag and walk off. The idea is you can ask the car to stop, but you leave the decision of when to proceed completely up to the driver of the car. The problem is at that moment, you are a railroad official to the eyes of any civilian, and the car driver would in theory be reasonable to assume that you have the skill and knowledge to tell them it is safe to proceed, even in the face of other conflicting evidence.

With a Cop, you now have a person that has been 'gifted' the utmost authority mortal man can get. Generally, there are two kinds of people in this case-those who blindly follow the cops orders because he is the good guy and not to be questioned, and those who follow exactly what the cop says because we have found officers of the law, in the past, to react quite aggressively towards those who ignore their orders, no matter how poor or dangerous the orders are. To ignore an officers instruction one has to risk finding themselves with their face slammed into the pavement, arms twisted behind your back, and being charged with disobeying and officer and resisting arrest. No I haven't been that far, but I have had a officer try to pick a fight with me just so he could take me out.

Many companies have the same rule for flagging crossings. While I was railroading, the TVRM pretty much dropped the use of red flags for flagging crossings in favor of using stop paddles. Using stop paddles can also change the dynamic by changing the flagger from a person merely giving warning of a potential danger to a person commanding the vehicle to stop (depending on state motor vehicle code). Granted, it's harder to board a moving locomotive with stop paddles (on roads that still permit moving mounts/dismounts), but it can be safely done.

Part of the problem with having law enforcement officers direct traffic is that many of them do not have proper detailed training to do the job. A properly trained officer would have taken the presence of the railroad crossing into account. Due to reductions in funding and other factors, many departments cannot justify having a Traffic Division separate from Patrol. Patrol is focused on enforcement of statutes while Traffic has the dual responsibility of traffic safety and enforcement of statutes. That is, a Traffic officer might be more likely to err on the side of safety versus strict enforcement if they determine that such an action is necessary to avoid an accident.

As for shifting while crossing a crossing, that is still a rule of thumb although a lot less significant than in years past. More and more commercial vehicles come from the manufacturer with automatic transmissions. In fact, many commercial vehicle manufacturers no longer offer manual transmissions as options. New manual transmissions have totally disappeared in the transit bus industry and are quickly disappearing from school buses.

Well, I note in the regulations cited by Jeff, above, section 392.10(b)(2) says that a commercial vehicle does not need to stop at a RR crossing if being flagged across by a cop.

So, the Midland cop flagged the truck through the traffic light just prior to the crossing. Can that be considered to be flagging through the crossing? Were the cops alongside him considered to have been flagging?

Jim,

I assume you are refering to this part: "(2) A railroad grade crossing when a police officer or crossing flagman directs traffic to proceed,"

I wonder if that would apply in situations where the red crossing lights are flashing and/or if a train was visible with headlights and moving toward the crossing. I assume that it would apply. That is that the driver could proceed based on the authority of the police officer flagging him to proceed.

If this is true, it would seem to corroborate the finding of the NTSB; and refute the concept expressed by some here that a driver must not cross an activated crossing even if a cop flags him to proeceed.

As to the Midland crash, I don't see where it is stated what the police did in terms of flagging the float driver across the crossing. The NTSB report says that the police flagged the driver through several red stop lights, and created a false sense of security fof the driver, but I don't see any information saying exactly what the police did in terms of flagging the driver through the grade crossing. Perhaps that information is stated somewhere, but I have missed it.