We have a road that runs parallel to our track at a distance of 20 ft. away. We have an unguarded grade crossing into a parking area. We sometimes have school busses turning into the parking area and cannot get ‘square’ to the tracks to make their mandatory stop. Question: What is the proper position for the bus to make their mandatory stop before proceeding across the tracks?
Thanks
Rich
Your question can best be answered by your state police.
There really isn’t one if a turn is involved as you can never get a School Bus in one lane completely if it is turning onto a new road while crossing the tracks or approaching the tracks. The legal mandate is to pause and look both ways with the doors open and the warning lights flashing, close the doors and cross the tracks. If the crossing is marked EXEMPT, the school bus does not have to stop.
If it is a multi-lane straight on approach BLVD the school bus should be in the farthest right lane (unless it is a turn lane).
BTW, unsafe to cross RR crossings (and there are SOME in Wisconsin with crappy visibility from the road) the School Bus Company or whomever owns the bus…really their responsibility to route a School Bus around those RR Crossings with issues vs just driving over them and hoping for the best result each time. Feedback from the School Bus drivers plays a role here. Relying on the railroad or county or state to fix Railroad Crossing issues can sometimes take 5-10 years while they argue between themselves and it is better to be safe than sorry.
Norm
That is a good idea. I will also check with the local police. But I still want to hear from the members of this forum as there is a lot of experience here. I also updated my topic title to show that we are in Ohio. - thanks
CMStPnp
You bring up some excellent points. This is exactly why I wanted to post the question here. -thanks
The opinion of the local gendarmerie notwithstanding, it becomes a question of safety.
As already noted, it’s necessary to stop, open the doors, and look both ways. Buses here use their hazard (4 way) flashers, not the main warning lights.
A further question would be the direction of approach, which is what I based my initial comment on. It might be worse to stop blocking two lanes if making a left turn. We already have enough problems with people passing stopped school buses - no sense offering the opportunity to broadside one.
While the current route may be convenient - is it possible the bus(es) could be rerouted on a safer path?
Larry
The area is serving as the North Pole for our Polar Express. We have been having school busses bringing students who participate as ‘elves’ . They are dropped off at our depot and I am the one who has been sending the empty bus to our overflow parking area. That’s the only place that busses will fit.
Based on what I am reading here I am planning on boarding the bus and riding along to the crossing, then deboarding the bus during the mandatory stop and then flagging the bus across the tracks. I will have the bus driver stop parallel to the tracks. Does that seem reasonable?- thanks
Note: It is a very lightly traveled road.
Let me throw out a tangental School Bus issue. Since it doesn’t become ‘visibally light’ until 0730 and can be dark by 1630 and school busses are out running their routes ‘in the dark’. I personally have no difficulty discerning that a school bus moving in my direction is ahead and stopping with their flashers on - between the flashers, reflective tape and headlights illuminating the yellow of the bus - school busses are easily seen from the rear.
From the front, as you approach them on a two lane road is a whole different kettle of fish. The only thing that defines a School Bus when you approach it from the front are the flashing red lights at the roof line and the swing out ‘Stop’ signs that in my state have very poor reflectivity in headlights. In the areas I travel, School Busses are NOT THE ONLY vehicles that display flashing red lights, but they are the vehicles you must STOP for when they have their lights flashing.
To my mind, the front surfaces of School Busses should be covered with highly reflective Yellow safety coverings, similar to the the reflective panels that are appearing on ambulances and other emergency vehicles. For the safety and law observation of all - School Busses must be highly visible when stopping in the dark as well as when stopping in daylight conditions.
Not an Ohio Resident anymore, but the full-time strobes mounted to the rear of the bus roof in the SW Ohio area are annoying to the point of being identified a bus-only feature. (Have seen the stobes on garbage trucks in other states)
Not necessary but no harm done in using that procedure so go for it.
Yes in Wisconsin if an alternate route is available (in most cases there is one).
In the state where I drove a School bus it is the perogitive of the dispatcher to route the bus but as I said before the Drivers have to give feedback. I would not take a route near Pine Lake in the Lake Country of Wisconsin because the RR Crossing was so dangerous (ex-C&NW Twin Cities Mainline crossing with just flashing cross bucks with lights obscured by brush from the hilltop view). Visibility was too restricted at the crossing plus the crossing was at the bottom of a steep hill which if it was not salted properly in the winter the bus would sometimes slide across and stop blocking the crossing in part. I complained to the dispatcher and the first response was to put a new driver on the route. She had a near miss with a train, came back crying tears about it and threatened to quit, then they rerouted the bus on a different route.
On the school buses I drove as well some of the brakes were crappy because the brake fluid had to travel from the engine compartment all the way back to the rear wheels and a lot of times either leakage in the line somewhere, not enough pressure or just crappy maintenence. Hope they fixed that problem. Not a huge issue with a shift bus because you can engine brake, downshift, and toggle the cable Emergency brake if the brakes go out…but still it freaks you out when it happens. Those where the old International Harvestor cabbed school buses though and I don’t see a lot of them on the road anymore.
One other thing I would mention is the frame and body of the school bus back then was built like a tank. I remember backing into a telephone pole once and the telephone pole moved (ha-ha). Couldn’t