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 <o:p></o:p> Henry,  <o:p></o:p> I understand your point, but I don’t think you understood mine.  You are right to point out that the grade crossing signals give a timed warning ahead of a train’s arrival at the crossing.  But they give zero warning before they activate.  And yet the law says a driver must stop short of them if they activate.  <o:p></o:p> The point I was making was not about giving the driver warning for the train.  My point was about giving the driver warning for the absolute stop indication of the signals.  The law is not clearly written in regard to driver responsibility when approaching a signalized grade crossing.   <o:p></o:p> You make the analogy to a traffic light with yellow aspect giving warning to the red aspect.  But there is no such warning in the grade crossing signals.  They simply go from clear to stop instantaneously.  So the grade crossing train-warning interval is not intended to give the driver time to stop.  It can’t be, because a driver must be stopped before that interval begins.   <o:p></o:p> So, for all practical purposes, to comply with crossing law, a driver must stop at all signalized grade crossings in order to be prepared to stop for an instantaneous signal change from clear to stop.  Is that what the law actually intends?  That is not what I was taught in driver training.  It would be a great question for the Nevada State Patrol.  I know of no other instance in highway or railroad signals where a signal changes from clear to stop with no advance warning.    <o:p></o:p> Drivers can muddle by this ambiguity in the crossing law in city driving.  A cop is probably not going to give a ticket if the signals activate and a driver closely approaching zips through rather than slamming on the brakes.  Cops always like to cite common sense.  But when you have a 70-mph highway grade crossing, this ambiguity in the law becomes much more significant.  That is why Nevada should either drop the speed limit in advance of the crossing, or incorporate an active advance warning for the crossing.  That would, in effect, provide the missing yellow light so to speak.
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