Railroad-Highway Grade Crossings
Railroad-Highway Grade Crossings
This domain tests the one maneuver where a school bus has no discretion: the crossing stop. Federal rules require a passenger-carrying commercial vehicle to stop at every railroad grade crossing, and Massachusetts applies the same rule to school buses whether or not students are aboard.
The procedure
- Turn on hazard flashers as you approach.
- Stop no closer than 15 feet and no farther than 50 feet from the nearest rail.
- Open the service door and the driver's window, turn off the radio and heater fan, and silence the passengers.
- Look and listen in both directions, then look again.
- Cross only in a gear that will carry you all the way over without shifting; never shift while on the tracks.
- Check that the far side has room for the whole bus before you commit.
Multiple tracks
Count the tracks and treat each one as a separate crossing. A train clearing on the first track can hide a second train on the next track moving the other way. Cross only when every track is visibly clear.
If the bus stalls on the tracks
Evacuate immediately. Get students at least 100 feet from the tracks and away from the direction the train would come, call 911, then move the group. If a train is coming, run at an angle toward the train rather than straight away from it, so debris does not strike the group.
Worked example
A bus stops 20 feet back, door open, hazards on, and waits for a freight train to clear track one. The driver starts to roll. A second train on track two, running opposite, is masked by the first. The correct answer is to count the tracks and wait until both are clear, not to move when the first train clears.
Traps
Rolling stops; stopping 60 feet back where you cannot see; leaving the door closed; shifting mid-crossing; assuming a quiet zone removes the stop requirement.