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Thanks for your input Ed.I made these three points in an earlier post:  1)   I am not advocating reflectors.2)   I think the FRA reflector mandate is a bad idea.3)   I am not saying the railroad was at fault in the Houston crash.I should add a fourth point to these three:4)   I am not opposed to the use of reflectors, and I believe they could save lives in certain circumstances.   My only objection arises from a hunch that the reflector mandate might have unforeseen, unintended consequences primarily by increasing liability.  However, that is only my opinion, and I am not a lawyer.  I suspect that there may even be disagreement among lawyers on this point.  I do not know whether the fact that the FRA has given a timetable for the reflector application has an affect the issue of liability, or what that affect might be.    Basically, the nugget of my concern is the official admission by the industry that freight cars pose a crash hazard because they are hard to see.  To me, this seems like a sea change in the assignment of responsibility.  Previously, a driver was expected to control his vehicle, being able to stop short of any obstruction; just like a train operating within yard limits.  I don't believe that a railroad investigation would ever accept the excuse that a conscious engineer collided with standing cars within yard limits, because the cars were hard to see.  Yet everybody would agree that those standing cars would have been easier to see if they had been marked by a lighted fusee.  So this new position proclaimed by the FRA seems like a profound shift in responsibility; something entirely new in the world of motoring. It seems like feeding the crocodile of the politics of victimization.  If reflectors are essential, why not electric lights?  Part of the rationale of reflectors is that they create an animated display on a moving train, and that animation helps get a driver's attention.  When drivers get used to being warned by the animated display of passing trains, will they be caught off guard by stopped trains with no animation?  Electric lights could be made to flash, thus animating the signal no matter whether the train was moving or stopped.  When you start down this road, where to you stop?Before passing over grade crossings that are protected only by crossbucks, drivers are required to ascertain that crossing will not conflict with a train.  Drivers cannot possibly comply with this law if they run into a train that is blocking the crossing.  So there is a conflict between a law that requires visual certainty that a crossing is clear of trains, and a secondary warning device based on the premise that visual certainty may not be sufficient if the train is hard to see.Aside from the issue of an installation timetable that allows some cars to remain unprotected while the hazard has been identified, there is the issue of maintaining reflectors now that they have become a universal, mandatory, safety-warning device.  From what I read prior to the mandate, there was widespread opposition to it by the railroads.  Cost of installation was cited as the issue.  Cost of maintenance was never mentioned, and neither was the issue of liability.  If liability were an issue with the railroads, however, I doubt that they would go on record with any comment.I expect the legal ramifications of reflectors to unfold in the inevitable lawsuits that will follow the future R.I.T. crashes that are bound to occur.  In cases of crashes into moving trains, the condition or existence of reflectors on the car hit, as well as on cars preceding it is likely to be an issue.  Moreover, brand new cars with perfect reflectors will be struck by distracted motorists, calling into question the adequacy of the reflector warning, and the need for improvement.
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