BILL NUMBER: SB 1491 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 2, 2000
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 24, 2000
INTRODUCED BY Senator Leslie
(Coauthor: Senator Johnston)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bock, Cox, House, Longville,
Pescetti, and Zettel)
FEBRUARY 11, 2000
An act to amend Sections 7604 and 7678 of, and add
Section 7604.5 to, 1202, 7604, and 7678 of the
Public Utilities Code, relating to transportation, and declaring the
urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1491, as amended, Leslie. Railroad crossings: automated
warning devices.
Existing law requires that an audible warning device be sounded
from a locomotive engine at least 1320 feet before the intersection
of the railroad and a street, road, or highway with certain
exceptions. Existing law imposes a civil fine on a railroad
corporation that violates this provision and makes it a misdemeanor
for a person in charge of a locomotive engine to fail to sound the
warning. Existing law also provides the Public Utilities
Commission with exclusive power to regulate the location,
maintenance, and operation of railroad and street railroad crossings.
This bill would eliminate the requirement that the warning device
on the locomotive engine be sounded when approaching a railroad
crossing that has a permanent audible warning device that
automatically sounds as the locomotive engine approaches the railroad
crossing. This bill would also require the commission to
develop and administer a pilot program to test audible warning
devices in at least 3 communities interested in the devices.
Specified deadlines would be required to be met and a report made to
the Legislature not later than November 1, 2001
authorize the commission to authorize and supervise the operation of
pilot projects to evaluate proposed crossing warning devices or new
technology. The bill would make related declarations and findings
.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 1202 of the Public Utilities Code is
amended to read:
1202. The commission has the exclusive power:
(a) To determine and prescribe the manner, including the
particular point of crossing, and the terms of installation,
operation, maintenance, use, and protection of each crossing of one
railroad by another railroad or street railroad, and of a street
railroad by a railroad, and of each crossing of a public or publicly
used road or highway by a railroad or street railroad, and of a
street by a railroad or vice versa of a
railroad by a street .
(b) To alter, relocate, or abolish by physical closing any
such crossing heretofore or hereafter
established set forth in subdivision (a) .
(c) To require, where in its judgment it would be practicable, a
separation of grades at any such crossing
heretofore or hereafter established and to prescribe the
terms upon which such the separation
shall be made and the proportions in which the expense of the
construction, alteration, relocation, or abolition of such
crossings or the separation of such
grades shall be divided between the railroad or street railroad
corporations affected or between such these
corporations and the state, county, city, or other political
subdivision affected.
(d) (1) To authorize and supervise the operation of pilot projects
to evaluate proposed crossing warning devices or new technology at
designated crossings, with the consent of the local jurisdiction, the
affected railroad, and other interested parties, including, but not
limited to, represented railroad employees.
(2) (A) The Legislature finds and declares that for the
communities of the state that are traversed by railroads, there is a
growing need to mitigate train horn noise without compromising the
safety of the public. Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature
that the commission authorize pilot projects in at least the
communities of Roseville and Lathrop to test the utility and safety
of stationary, automated audible warning devices as an alternative to
trains having to sound their horns as they approach highway-rail
crossings.
(B) In light of the pending proposed ruling by the Federal
Railroad Administration on the use of locomotive horns at all
highway-rail crossings across the nation, it would be in the best
interest of the state for the commission to expedite the pilot
projects in order to contribute data to the federal rulemaking
process regarding the possible inclusion of stationary, automated
warning devices as a safety measure option to the proposed federal
rule.
SEC. 2. Section 7604 of the Public Utilities Code is amended
to read:
7604. (a) A bell, of at least 20 pounds weight or of equivalent
sound-producing capability, shall be placed on each locomotive
engine, and shall be rung at a distance of at least 1,320 feet from
the place where the railroad crosses any street, road, or highway,
and be kept ringing until it has crossed the street, road, or
highway; or a steam whistle, air siren, or an air whistle shall be
attached, and be sounded at the like distance, and be kept sounding
at intervals until it has crossed the street, road, or highway,
except as follows:
(1) Notwithstanding Section 7678, in In
a city, the ringing of the bell or the sounding of the steam
whistle, air siren, or air whistle shall be at the discretion of the
operator of the locomotive engine.
(2) When a locomotive engine is engaged in a switching operation
or comes to a stop at any point within a distance of 1,320 feet from
the place at which the railroad crosses any street, road, or highway,
it shall not be necessary that the bell be rung or the whistle, air
siren, or air whistle be sounded, until the time and from the place
that the locomotive begins an uninterrupted movement to and across
the place at which the railroad crosses the street, road, or highway.
(3) Notwithstanding Section 7678, the (A)
The ringing of the bell or the sounding of the steam whistle,
air siren, or air whistle is not required when approaching a railroad
crossing that has a permanently installed audible warning device
approved authorized by the commission
that sounds automatically when an approaching train is at least 1,320
feet from the place where the railroad crosses any street, road, or
highway, and that keeps sounding until the locomotive engine
lead locomotive has crossed the street, road,
or highway. The automatic warning device shall sound at the
same or greater decibel level as that set forth in subdivision (a)
for a warning device mounted on a locomotive engine.
(B) The operator of the locomotive may ring the bell or sound the
steam whistle, air siren, or air whistle at crossings equipped as set
forth in subparagraph (A).
(b) Any railroad corporation violating this section shall be
subject to a penalty of one hundred dollars ($100) for every
violation. The penalty may be recovered in an action prosecuted by
the district attorney of the proper county, for the use of the state.
The corporation is also liable for all damages sustained by any
person, and caused by its locomotives, train, or cars, when the
provisions of this section are not complied with.
SEC. 2. Section 7604.5 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
7604.5. (a) The commission shall develop and administer a pilot
program to test the use of audible warning devices where a railroad
crosses a street, road, or highway in at least three communities
interested in permanently installing these devices for noise
mitigation purposes.
(b) (1) The commission shall develop guidelines to assist
potential applicants and the guidelines shall be available to
potential applicants not later than three months after the act that
adds this section becomes operative.
(2) The commission shall take into consideration the public's
safety when developing the guidelines for the program.
(3) The commission shall select at least three sites for the
installation of audible warning devices from the pool of qualified
applicants not later than six months after the act that adds this
section becomes operative. Selected applicants shall install the
audible warning devices and complete the data collection requirements
of the program not later than eight months after being selected by
the commission.
(c) The commission shall, after compiling and reviewing the data,
report its findings to the Legislature not later than November 1,
2001. The data to be collected in the administration of this program
shall include, but not be limited to, the calculations discussed in
the Introduction to Appendices A and B to 49 C.F.R. Part 222 in the
Federal Railroad Administration's notice of proposed rulemaking on
"Use of Locomotive Horns at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings," as
published in Vol. 65, No. 9 of the Federal Register (Thursday,
January 13, 2000).
SEC. 3. Section 7678 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
7678. Except as provided in paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive,
of subdivision (a) of Section 7604, every person in charge
of a locomotive engine who, before crossing any traveled public way,
omits to cause a bell to ring or steam whistle, air siren, or air
whistle to sound at the distance of at least 1,320 feet from the
crossing, and up to it until the lead
locomotive has passed through the crossing , is guilty of a
misdemeanor.
SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order for the test of the pilot program for stationary,
automated audible warning devices on locomotive engines
at highway-rail crossings and the feasibility of
that system to be assessed as soon as possible, it is necessary that
this act take effect immediately.