Full Text of HB0389 94th General Assembly
HB0389 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2005 and 2006 HB0389
Introduced 1/25/2005, by Rep. Robert Rita SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED: |
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625 ILCS 5/18c-7402 |
from Ch. 95 1/2, par. 18c-7402 |
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Amends the Illinois Vehicle Code. Provides for increased fines if a railroad causes the obstruction of a crossing for longer than 8 (rather than 10) minutes. Provides that $250 of any fine levied against and paid by a railroad for crossing obstruction shall be deposited into the Local Government Distributive Fund.
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A BILL FOR
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HB0389 |
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LRB094 05700 DRH 35751 b |
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| AN ACT concerning transportation.
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| Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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| represented in the General Assembly:
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| Section 5. The Illinois Vehicle Code is amended by changing | 5 |
| Section 18c-7402 as follows:
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| (625 ILCS 5/18c-7402) (from Ch. 95 1/2, par. 18c-7402)
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| Sec. 18c-7402. Safety Requirements for Railroad | 8 |
| Operations.
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| (1) Obstruction of Crossings.
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| (a) Obstruction of Emergency Vehicles.
Every railroad | 11 |
| shall be operated in such a manner as to
minimize | 12 |
| obstruction of emergency vehicles at crossings.
Where such | 13 |
| obstruction occurs and the train crew is
aware of the | 14 |
| obstruction, the train crew shall
immediately take any | 15 |
| action, consistent with safe
operating procedure, | 16 |
| necessary to remove the
obstruction. In the Chicago and St. | 17 |
| Louis switching
districts, every railroad dispatcher or | 18 |
| other person
responsible for the movement of railroad | 19 |
| equipment in a
specific area who receives notification that | 20 |
| railroad
equipment is obstructing the movement of an | 21 |
| emergency
vehicle at any crossing within such area shall
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| immediately notify the train crew through use of
existing | 23 |
| communication facilities. Upon notification,
the train | 24 |
| crew shall take immediate action in accordance
with this | 25 |
| paragraph.
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| (b) Obstruction of Highway at Grade Crossing | 27 |
| Prohibited.
It is unlawful for a rail carrier to permit any | 28 |
| train,
railroad car or engine to obstruct public travel at | 29 |
| a
railroad-highway grade crossing for a period in excess
of | 30 |
| 10 minutes, except where such train or railroad car
is | 31 |
| continuously moving or cannot be moved by reason of
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| circumstances over which the rail carrier has no
reasonable |
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HB0389 |
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LRB094 05700 DRH 35751 b |
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| control.
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| In a county with a population of greater than 1,000,000, as | 3 |
| determined by
the most recent federal census, during the
hours | 4 |
| of 7:00 a.m. through 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. through 6:00 p.m. | 5 |
| it is
unlawful for a rail carrier to permit any single train or | 6 |
| railroad car to
obstruct
public travel at a railroad-highway | 7 |
| grade crossing in excess of a total of 10
minutes during a 30 | 8 |
| minute period, except where the train or railroad
car
cannot be | 9 |
| moved by reason or circumstances over which the rail carrier | 10 |
| has no
reasonable control. Under no circumstances will a moving | 11 |
| train be stopped for
the purposes of
issuing a citation related | 12 |
| to this Section.
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| However, no employee acting under the rules or orders of | 14 |
| the rail carrier or
its supervisory personnel may be prosecuted | 15 |
| for a violation of this
subsection (b).
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| (c) Punishment for Obstruction of Grade Crossing.
Any | 17 |
| rail carrier violating paragraph (b) of this
subsection (1) | 18 |
| is
shall be guilty of a petty offense and shall be fined
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| not less than $200 nor more than $500 if the duration of
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| the obstruction is in excess of 8
10 minutes but no longer
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| than 15 minutes. If the duration of the obstruction
exceeds | 22 |
| 15 minutes the violation shall be a business
offense and | 23 |
| the following fines shall be imposed: if
the duration of | 24 |
| the obstruction is in excess of 15
minutes but no longer | 25 |
| than 20 minutes, the violation is a petty offense and the | 26 |
| fine shall be
$800. If
$500; if the duration of the | 27 |
| obstruction is in excess of
20 minutes , the violation is a | 28 |
| business offense and the following fines shall be imposed: | 29 |
| if the duration of the obstruction is in excess of 20 | 30 |
| minutes but no longer than 25 minutes, the fine shall
be | 31 |
| $1,200
$700 ; if the duration of the obstruction is in | 32 |
| excess
of 25 minutes , but no longer than 30 minutes, the | 33 |
| fine
shall be $1,500
$900 ; if the duration of the | 34 |
| obstruction is in
excess of 30 minutes but no longer than | 35 |
| 35 minutes, the
fine shall be $2,000
$1,000 ; if the | 36 |
| duration of the obstruction
is in excess of 35 minutes, the |
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HB0389 |
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LRB094 05700 DRH 35751 b |
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| fine shall be $2,000
$1,000
plus an additional $750
$500
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| for each 5 minutes of
obstruction in excess of 25 minutes | 3 |
| of obstruction. Of each fine levied against and paid by a | 4 |
| railroad for a violation of paragraph (b) of this | 5 |
| subsection (1), $250 shall be deposited into the Local | 6 |
| Government Distributive Fund.
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| (2) Other Operational Requirements.
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| (a) Bell and Whistle-Crossings.
Every rail carrier | 9 |
| shall cause a bell, and a whistle or
horn to be placed and | 10 |
| kept on each locomotive, and shall
cause the same to be | 11 |
| rung or sounded by the engineer or
fireman, at the distance | 12 |
| of a least 1,320 feet, from the
place where the railroad | 13 |
| crosses or intersects any
public highway, and shall be kept | 14 |
| ringing or sounding
until the highway is reached; provided | 15 |
| that at crossings
where the Commission shall by order | 16 |
| direct, only after a hearing has been
held to determine the | 17 |
| public is reasonably and sufficiently protected, the rail
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| carrier may be excused from giving warning provided by
this | 19 |
| paragraph.
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| (a-5) The requirements of paragraph (a) of this
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| subsection (2) regarding ringing a bell and sounding a
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| whistle or horn do not apply at a railroad crossing that
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| has a permanently installed automated audible warning
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| device authorized by the Commission under Section
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| 18c-7402.1 that sounds automatically when an approaching
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| train is at least 1,320 feet from the crossing and that
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| keeps sounding until the lead locomotive has crossed the
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| highway. The engineer or fireman may ring the bell or
sound | 29 |
| the whistle or horn at a railroad crossing that has a
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| permanently installed audible warning device.
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| (b) Speed Limits.
Each rail carrier shall operate its | 32 |
| trains in compliance
with speed limits set by the | 33 |
| Commission. The Commission
may set train speed limits only | 34 |
| where such limits are
necessitated by extraordinary | 35 |
| circumstances effecting
the public safety, and shall | 36 |
| maintain such train speed
limits in effect only for such |
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| time as the extraordinary
circumstances prevail.
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| The Commission and the Department of Transportation | 3 |
| shall conduct a study
of the relation between train speeds | 4 |
| and railroad-highway grade crossing
safety. The Commission | 5 |
| shall report the findings of the study to the General
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| Assembly no later than January 5, 1997.
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| (c) Special Speed Limit; Pilot Project. The Commission | 8 |
| and the
Board of the Commuter Rail Division of the Regional | 9 |
| Transportation Authority
shall conduct a pilot project in | 10 |
| the Village of
Fox River Grove, the site of the
fatal | 11 |
| school bus accident at a railroad crossing
on October 25, | 12 |
| 1995, in order to improve railroad crossing safety. For | 13 |
| this
project, the Commission is directed to set the maximum | 14 |
| train speed limit for
Regional Transportation Authority | 15 |
| trains at 50 miles per hour at intersections
on
that | 16 |
| portion of
the intrastate rail line located in the Village | 17 |
| of Fox River Grove.
If the Regional Transportation | 18 |
| Authority deliberately fails to comply with this
maximum | 19 |
| speed
limit, then any entity, governmental or otherwise, | 20 |
| that provides capital or
operational funds to the Regional | 21 |
| Transportation
Authority shall appropriately reduce or | 22 |
| eliminate that funding.
The Commission shall report
to the | 23 |
| Governor and the General Assembly on the results of this | 24 |
| pilot
project in January
1999, January 2000, and January | 25 |
| 2001. The Commission shall also submit a final
report on | 26 |
| the pilot project to the Governor and the General Assembly | 27 |
| in January
2001. The provisions of this
subsection (c), | 28 |
| other than this sentence, are inoperative after February 1,
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| 2001.
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| (3) Report and Investigation of Rail Accidents.
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| (a) Reports.
Every rail carrier shall report to the | 32 |
| Commission, by
the speediest means possible, whether | 33 |
| telephone,
telegraph, or otherwise, every accident | 34 |
| involving its
equipment, track, or other property which | 35 |
| resulted in
loss of life to any person. In addition, such | 36 |
| carriers
shall file a written report with the Commission.
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| Reports submitted under this paragraph shall be strictly
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| confidential, shall be specifically prohibited from
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| disclosure, and shall not be admissible in any
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| administrative or judicial proceeding relating to the
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| accidents reported.
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| (b) Investigations.
The Commission may investigate all | 7 |
| railroad accidents
reported to it or of which it acquires | 8 |
| knowledge
independent of reports made by rail carriers, and | 9 |
| shall
have the power, consistent with standards and
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| procedures established under the Federal Railroad Safety | 11 |
| Act, as amended, to
enter such
temporary orders as will | 12 |
| minimize the risk of future accidents pending notice,
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| hearing, and final action by the Commission.
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| (Source: P.A. 91-675, eff. 6-1-00; 92-284, eff. 8-9-01.)
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