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But this does involve colliding with a train.  Here is some interesting information from the Nevada driver’s manual on the topic of vehicle stopping distance.  It factors in a reaction time of 2.5 seconds and gives definitions distinguishing stopping distance from braking distance.  For a typical passenger car on dry pavement, at 65 mph, it gives a total stopping distance of 494 feet.   <o:p></o:p> It does not give the stopping distance for 70 mph, however it does say that if you double the speed, it increases the braking distance by a factor of four.  So, if we look at the speed of 35 mph, it gives a braking distance of 68 feet.  Then if you multiply that number by four, it gives a braking distance at 70 mph as 272 feet.   And then if you add in the 2.5-second reaction time, it gives a total stopping distance for a typical passenger car traveling 70 mph as being 527 feet.  <o:p></o:p> Given the fact that trucks have a longer stopping distance than passenger cars, and given the numerical spread between the stopping distance of trucks versus passenger cars in other tables available on the web; I think that one could make a conservative estimate that the truck involved in the Nevada crash would require 600 feet to stop.  <o:p></o:p> So this would confirm that the grade crossing warning for such a truck approaching the Nevada crossing northbound with its 900-foot straight approach would be 300 feet or 2.92 seconds.  What that means is that a distraction that lasts 2.92 seconds would make difference between colliding with a train and stopping in time.  So you can see that there would be enough stopping distance but just barely.  A driver would have to be distracted for a collision to occur, but it would only take 2.92 seconds of distraction.  I don’t think the victims on the train would be satisfied with the explanation that they are dead because the driver was distracted for 2.92 seconds.     <o:p></o:p> Here is the manual and the stopping distance is on page 31:    <o:p></o:p> <a href="http://www.dmvnv.com/pdfforms/dlbook.pdf">http://www.dmvnv.com/pdfforms/dlbook.pdf</a>
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