School Bus: stopping is pointless

I’ve always wondered about the actual safety benefit of the stop before crossing the tracks. I see four potential problems.

  1. Stall/breakdown on the track. (already discussed above.)

  2. Leaves the vehicle on the track for a longer period due to slower speed.

3:. Stopping any vehicle in the middle of the road (especially on rural highways) is a good way to get hit from behind.

  1. Inclement weather makes the above problems worse; and adds its own special hazard. Fog or rprecipitation reduces what you can see when stopped - and the vision of that idiot doing 65 in pea soup behind you; snow or ice (and on certain rural roads; mud) makes it harder for the guy behind you to stop and adds the possibility of getting stuck due to lack of traction.

You have to remember that many crossings do not have gates or even lights, particularly back when stopping became mandatory. To proceed without stopping would almost literally be russian roulette. On the down side of this discussion I’ve responded to an accident where a school bus on a 4-lane 40 mph highway stopped as it should and the car behind slammed into it. But that was because of that thing you can’t legislate against.

Bizarre as it sounds I have stalled an FL80 fire engine with an automatic more than once. It is extremely underpowered and when it is cold turning the steering wheel hard can stall it.

RH

Slower speed also means that it takes less distance to stop. Even at 5 mph, a car’s only on the tracks for a second or two… but at 55 mph (rural crossing) it can take 100’ to stop as opposed to 5 feet. (I’m pulling numbers out of my head here, so they may be wrong… the idea should be clear, though.)

I agree that being aware of a crossing is a good thing. I think that it is good for the bus to stop before the crossing and look to see if a train is approaching.

I guess the idea behind the law is that if you see a train wait. This should work at most crossings. If the driver hears a horn or see’s a train coming then the large vehicle shouldn’t cross. No concern for the bus stalling on the tracks if the bus is never on them. If there is no train coming and the bus stalls it gives the bus driver time to get in touch with the railraod to tell them the situation and evacuate the scene in time. I understand some crossings are hard to see but it’s better to be safe then sorry I guess.

My next question is, When should a bus stop stopping at an abandoned line. There is a clearly abadoned line going through town on my old school bus route I used to ride. The line has been cut and no trains could possibly be on the line going through my town. Should a large vehicle be made to stop at these crossings or should their be a provision of the law to say you don’t have to stop at these. My town has taken out some of the crossings to change this but still it’s to costly to remove every crossing.
Andrew

Sometimes you have crossings that are exempt or say “tracks out of service” like those in Newton County, IN. (Just a few miles off of Rt 41.) School buses and CVs probably don’t have to stop, but if I was driving I’d be sure to slow! Railroad crossings are sometimes really bumpy, especially if they’re out of service.

Stupid Question, are you BRAIN DEAD.

Take your STUPID QUESTIONs to some brain dead reality TV show. ARE YOU REALLY THAT STUPID?

These are our kids, gosh, we should stop and look both ways before we cross a railroad.

Jim - Lawton, NV MP 236

Jim - Lawton NV MP 236

Hello SP9033,

You’re likely a parent as I am and your response to Coborn is understandable, but take it easy. No need to blow torch him. He’s a teen himself and likely hasn’t had our adult experiences yet.

When I was a kid back in the early 70s I rode school buses. I used to wonderi why buses had to stop on tracks that had crossing gates and the view in both directions was unobstructed.[%-)]

When I got to high school I then understood as in the late 1970s there were a few “Train vs. School Buses” collisions or near misses in the news media.[:0][B)]

Not sure about Ohio, but in Wisconsin, if the crossing is not removed, they put an “Exempt” sign on all crossing signs at crossings where a stop is no longer required due to abandonment or very low traffic density, in which case the trains are required to stop and ‘flag’ the crossing before proceding.

Look if stop, look listen just saves one life it is worth the regulation.

I live near such an abandoned line; the gates are tied up to the poles supporting them. The stop lines still get painted, and the school busses still stop at the lines, open their doors and listen.

I’d rather have a school bus driver be overcautious than stupid around any traffic, not only railroads.

Erik

Four years ago I took a job driving a city bus in our state capital. On my afternoon shift I go thru two NS crossings every half hour. Federal regulations require that we stop only if we have passengers on board; however, company policy requires us to stop each time so we don’t forget. Violating this law is a $10,000 fine and a year’s suspension of your CDL. With all the eyewitnesses involved, you better believe I stop each time! Occasionally, the gates and signals activate when there is no train. Federal law does not allow us to drive around them unless directed to by a policeman or railroad employee. We do not have to stop at a crossing that is marked with a sign reading “Exempt” or “Abandoned” or a crossing controlled by an active traffic signal.
Human cargo is extremely distracting. There is constant conversation, somtimes loud laughter, dropping of items on the hard floor that sound like a gunshot, and one lady who screamed (actually it was a sneeze). We constantly carry passengers that have slight mental handicaps, which is why they aren’t driving a car. With all this to deal with it is definitely a good idea to always stop at the crossings just to be sure you aren’t distracted into making a mistake.
Besides, when I was six years old my father died at a railroad crossing through no fault of his own. Had he been driving a bus instead of a tractor-trailer he would have automatically stopped and would have lived to see me thru school.

i actually saw a bus stop ON the tracks and THEN open the doors. Although the line is dormant in the winter,(excursion line) i think that if he does it once, he will surely do it again, maybe even on a live rail with a unit coal coming at him at 70 MPH!!!

If you are proposing they don’t stop, I’m wondering if you think it’s safer for the driver to forge ahead and simply trust nothing is coming? Please tell me this isn’t what you’re proposing. As I said in another thread, I saw the aftermath of schoolbus driver who did exactly that, got hit by a Penn Central freight doing 25 MPH, killed 4 children and injured more than 40 more. It is something I never wi***o see again.

Wayne