Violation of regulations pertaining to railroad-highway grade crossings

What this all means is not to race the train.

At one customer's place I work at, there is a rail crossing next to the building. I was ready to pull out when a driver of another company came down the street with a loaded truck. Not hazmat. The crossing gates were coming down for Amtrac trains (which runs pretty much empty). He stopped and then actually went right through the gap between the crossing gates. The cop down the street saw this and pulled him over. I bet you no matter who was his lawyer, he got fired and lost his license for a bit.

Did you read the book or just take practice tests to pass?

I think every states version of the CDL manual has something about it.

There are something called Exempt crossings that you do not stop at even if you are hazmat. That are clearly marked and usually on roads that have high posted speeds. There are a few in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio that I know of, I think there is a few in the west and a bunch outside of the cities in the North East.

Yep, seen a lot of them. For those who ignore them, this is a problem for those who don't get that they can't get their trailer over the tracks. I've been stuck behind an idiot who made a left onto a crossing and blocked the road because he got his trailer stuck. It took four hours to get it unstuck, two crane trucks and the train which was running behind had to sit there and wait. His company picked up the tab which I can imagine included the late charges from the rail company.

 

§ 392.10: Railroad grade crossings; stopping required.

(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, the driver of a commercial motor vehicle specified in paragraphs .................(b) A stop need not be made at:
(1) A streetcar crossing, or railroad tracks used exclusively for industrial switching purposes, within a business district, as defined in § 390.5 of this chapter.


No exempt sign needed. No need to stop. Just Barney Fife trying to get revenue.

 

True that, much better to stop and not have to, and not and suffer.

 

"Every commercial motor vehicle other than those listed in §392.10 shall, upon approaching a railroad grade crossing, be driven at a rate of speed which will permit said commercial motor vehicle to be stopped before reaching the nearest rail of such crossing and shall not be driven upon or over such crossing until due caution has been taken to ascertain that the course is clear."

There was a period when I was driving where cops in/around La Mirada CA were ticketing drivers for this violation like it was going out of style.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/392.10

 

We always taught students to take their foot off of the accelerator, cover the brake pedal, look right and left and do not shift while tractor or TRAILER is across the tracks. If a down shift is required do it before getting on the track.