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[quote user="spokyone"] Yesterday I was in Davenport IA, crossing the Iowa Interstate tracks at Marquette St, when I saw a distant grade crossing lights activate. Having my camera with me, I drove around the block to get my first pic of a IAIS train at that location. Then I saw it was a false activation. I waited around for a few minutes, then another activattion for about a minute. During that time, some drivers drove through without stopping, sight lines are good. Two city buses stopped & proceeded. Then later, false activation happened again.    After I left,  a car was hit by a train, & that was the third accident at that location recently. Luckily, no fatalities. Comments in the local paper suggest that faulty activations are common.    I have no idea if IAIS is aware of the problem. A question. May school buses stop & proceed through false activation of lights? How about gates? [/quote] That is the hidden danger of false activation.  That is, that it is like crying wolf.  It does not justify or excuse ignoring the signals, but it does encourage it.  I would suggest that a crossing signal that commonly false activates has a relatively higher probability of being ignored or violated than a signal that operates properly most of the time.     <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> I don’t know what the rules are pertaining to school buses needing to cross against signals that are falsely activating.  The rules for this may be different than for cars, and those rules probably vary from state to state.  Likewise, there may be special rules for trucks carrying flammable materials in the same circumstances.  However, as Kevin has mentioned above, cars are permitted to proceed through a crossing against the flashing signals, after stopping, if there are no trains approaching, or if a train is stopped clear of the crossing, in some, if not all states.    But if there are gates, and they are down, the road is considered to be closed.  It is not permissible to go around the gates in many, if not all states.
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