School Bus Red Lights and a Passive Rail Crossing 180 Feet Later
You are southbound at 45 mph on a two-lane, undivided oil-and-gravel county road in central North Dakota, following a yellow school bus about 150 feet back. The bus's amber lights begin flashing, then the red lights and stop arm deploy, and the bus stops in your lane. Three children get off and wait on the shoulder; two of them live on the left side of the road. About 180 feet past the bus, a passive railroad crossing is marked by a crossbuck, a 2 TRACKS plaque, and a stop bar painted across your lane. The crossing has no lights and no gates, and the sight line to the north is shortened by a rise. Behind you, a rancher's flatbed is 60 feet back and closing at better than your speed.
1. Must you stop for the bus? How far back, and when may you proceed - is it enough that the children have reached the shoulder?
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Yes. On an undivided roadway you must stop for a school bus displaying flashing red lights and the extended stop arm, regardless of how many lanes the road has or which side of the road the children live on. The amber lights were your warning that the stop was coming; by the time the reds deploy you should already be off the throttle.
Stop far enough back to leave the children and the arm clear - at least 10 feet behind the bus is the usual working figure - and far enough back that the flatbed behind you has room to stop. With that vehicle closing, brake early and progressively and tap the brakes to show the stop; do not slam down at 150 feet and invite a rear-end collision into a bus full of children.
You may proceed when the red lights stop flashing, the stop arm retracts, and the bus begins to move. Children reaching the shoulder is not the trigger - a child who drops a mitten will turn around and come back into the lane.
2. Would your obligation change on a four-lane divided highway with a raised median if the bus were stopped on the opposite side?
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Yes, in one specific way. Where the opposing lanes are separated by a raised median or a physical barrier, traffic traveling the opposite direction is not required to stop for the bus's red lights. The median is the dividing line: it separates the two directions into distinct roadways for this purpose.
Two cautions. First, that exception depends on a physical separation - a raised median or barrier. A continuous left-turn lane or painted median does not qualify, and on those roads opposing traffic must still stop. Second, the exception never applies to traffic in the same direction as the bus, no matter how many lanes there are. If you are behind the bus on a six-lane divided highway, you stop.
In this scenario the road is undivided with two lanes, so the exception is irrelevant: you stop, and so does the oncoming traffic behind the bus.
3. At the crossing itself, what do the crossbuck and the 2 TRACKS plaque require, and how does the shortened sight line over the rise change your approach?
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The crossbuck means yield: yield the right of way to any train, and be prepared to stop short of the stop bar. The 2 TRACKS plaque means a second train may follow the first on a separate track, possibly in the opposite direction - a train passing does not clear the crossing. The painted stop bar marks where to stop, which matters because it places you where you can actually see down the track.
The rise is the controlling fact. With sight distance shortened to the north, you cannot buy information at 45 mph. Sequence: do not follow the bus closely across the tracks; let it clear and confirm the crossing is empty. Then slow, open the window to listen, approach at a speed that lets you stop within the distance you can see to be clear, stop at the bar, look both ways twice for the second train, and proceed only when the whole crossing is visibly and audibly clear.
The flatbed behind is not a reason to hurry across; if it is following too closely, a slow, early signal and a steady deceleration is the best available defense.