An Act To Require Warning Lights at All Railroad Crossings
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 0626
Committee: Transportation
Sponsors: McKANE
Amends: 23 MRSA §7214

Legislative Document 
No. 626 
H.P.475 
House of Representatives, February 8, 2007 
An Act To Require Warning Lights at All Railroad Crossings 
Reference to the Committee on Transportation suggested and ordered printed. 
1J1~ 
frJ.7l!tU~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative McKANE of Newcastle. (BY REQUEST) 
Printed on ret..:'yc leu paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 23 MRSA §7214, as enacted by PL 1989, c. 398, §8, is amended to read: 
§7214. Signboards and warning lights at grade crossings; ringing of engine bells 
Every railroad corporation shall cause signboards with the words "Railroad Crossing" 
distinctly painted on each side of the signboards, or as a minimum on one side if 
signboards are placed facing on coming oncoming traffic in each direction, in letters 
plainly legible, to be placed and constantly maintained at the sffie sides of highways and 
town ways where they are crossed at grade by those railroads, on posts or other 
structures, in a position as to be easily seen by persons passing on those ways. Every 
railroad corporation shall cause a warning light system to be placed facing oncoming 
traffic in each direction and constantly maintained at the sides of highways and town 
ways where they are crossed at grade by those railroads. Every corporation shall cause a 
whistle and a bell of at least 35 pounds in weight to be placed on each locomotive used on 
its railroad, and the whistles sfl.al.l must be sounded as a warning beginning at a distance 
of 990 feet, on standard or narrow gauge railroads, from all crossings of those ways on 
the same level, unless the Department of Transportation, on petition of the corporation or 
of the municipal officers or of 10 or more residents of any city or town in which the 
crossing is located, after notice and hearing, shall order orders the sounding of the whistle 
to be discontinued in any city or village until further order of the department. The bell 
sfl.al.l must be rung at a distance of 990 feet, on standard or narrow gauge railroads, from 
grade crossings and be kept ringing until the engine has passed the crossings. On petition 
of 10 or more residents of the State, after notice to the railroad corporation and a public 
hearing, the department may in writing order the corporation to give additional warning 
to travelers on those ways by requiring the sounding of the whistles or the ringing of the 
bells at other places where the railroads cross the public ways other than at grade or run 
contiguous to the ways, and the orders sfl.al.l must have the same force and place the same 
obligations on railroad corporations as when required under this section. 
The Commissioner of Transportation may temporarily erect experimental signs at 
certain grade crossings instead of the signboards with the words "Railroad Crossing," as 
required in this section, for the purpose of conducting research for the development of 
improved signs. The erection of experimental signs by the department at a particular 
crossing shall relieve relieves the railroad company using that crossing from any liability 
in damages, lNhich that might otherwise arise against that company by the temporary 
removal or temporary obliteration of the railroad company signboard required by this 
section. The erection and removal of the temporary signs sfl.al.l must be at the expense of 
the department and the removal and reinstallation of signboards with the words "Railroad 
Crossing" sfl.al.l must also be at the expense of the department. 
Nothing in this section prevents the department from making further rules for safety 
at any crossing, including a private, temporary, farm or industrial crossing, as it deem:-s 
considers expedient or necessary. 
Page I - 123LR0203(OI)-1 
SUMMARY 
This bill requires warning lights to be placed by the railroads at every railroad 
crossing where the railroad crosses a public way.