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IC-CEiswhereiwannabe
Advanced Member
USA
214 Posts |
 Posted - 11/12/2004 : 08:58:18 AM
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I'm sure all of you have heard of these non-conforming van vehicles by now. There has been such a buzz. For the most part, these are passenger vehicles with regular passenger seating and seatbelts that are used by teachers or other school staff to transport students.Keep in mind, these are NON CONFORMING vehicles. They have no school bus signs, they are usually NOT national school bus yellow, they have no eight-way system, no emergency exits, no emergency windows, no strobes, no stop arms, no fire extinguishers.....sufficed to say, they are NOT school buses.
Now my issue is this. My school district is situated in the middle of two major train corridors that stretch from New York and Phila to Baltimore and Washington DC. They are quite busy and there are dangerous crossings everywhere you look. The drivers in our district have become amazingly good at the railroad crossing procedure in PA...hazard warning lights, turn off sounds....kids are quiet.... stop..... neutral.... parking brake.....door.....window......look, listen....no shifting on tracks....continue.
Our school board, having their first good idea in years, have decided it will be good idea to have our non-conforming vans to also make railroad stops. This also includes contracted drivers for the district that use their own cars to transport students. They are going to train teachers and staff to make railroad stops correctly in the vans (minus the service door part of course, lol) I think this is an amazing idea. Always safety first.
Some of my fellow drivers disagree. They state problems with traffic tie up and many believe our teachers are too absent minded to effectivly transport students anyway let alone make railroad stops too. Who cares about traffic tie when saftey is at stake?
Am I the only one that thinks that non-conforming vans should also have to make railroad crossing stops country wide?? |
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Non-conforming vans and railroad crossings
