OKLAHOMA CITY — The State of Ohio filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the issue of whether states can limit the amount of time trains are allowed to block railroad crossings – and Oklahoma figures prominently in the case.
Ohio’s “blocked crossing statute” prohibits stopped trains from impeding traffic flow along public thoroughfares for longer than 5 minutes, with certain exceptions.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has a rule that forbids trains from blocking railroad crossings for longer than 10 minutes, with particular exceptions.
In addition, the Oklahoma Legislature passed a law that would authorize a fine of up to $1,000 each time a train blocks a public street or highway for longer than 10 minutes, with some exceptions. However, two federal courts derailed the statute and the Supreme Court of the United States declined to intervene.
No federal laws or regulations specifically address “how long a stopped train may block a grade crossing,” Ohio notes. But two Acts of Congress address when federal law preempts state laws pertaining to railroads, the Buckeye State noted.
• The Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act grants the Surface Transportation Board “exclusive” jurisdiction over railroad “transportation.” As late as 1965, though, the ICC “lacked the power to establish safety regulations applicable to grade crossings,” Ohio noted. “That power resided exclusively in the states.”
• The Federal Railroad Safety Act expressly permits states to enforce laws “related to railroad safety” until the Secretary of Transportation “prescribes a regulation or issues an order covering the subject matter of the State requirements.”
Ohio has asked SCOTUS to rule whether either of those federal Acts preempts state laws that limit the amount of time a stopped train may block a grade crossing.
Besides the Termination Act and the Railroad Safety Act, Congress also enacted a separate law “showing that it wants States involved in this area,” Ohio maintains.
In the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act of 2015, Congress tasked the Federal Railroad Administration with “developing a ‘model’ state-action plan to help States evaluate and reduce grade-crossing problems, including the ‘public safety risks posed by blocked highway-rail grade crossings due to idling trains.”
CSX Transportation was charged in Marysville, Ohio, Municipal Court with violating the 5-minute state statute five times between May and November 2018. Four of those incidents involved trains parked on roadways for an hour or longer, law enforcement officers alleged.
A CSX employee admitted its trains “occasionally block grade crossings while loading and unloading” materials at an automobile plant near Marysville.
The town court dismissed the misdemeanor charges, holding that federal law preempts the state’s regulatory authority. Ohio’s Third District Court of Appeals reversed, but the Ohio Supreme Court reinstated the municipal court ruling on Aug. 17, 2022.
“Exercising its traditional authority” over grade crossings, Ohio has forbidden stopped trains from blocking roads for “extended periods” since at least 1853, or almost 170 years. Indiana has done so “since at least 1865” and Kansas has regulated blocked grade crossings since 1897. And most other states, including Oklahoma, “have some form of anti-blocking law,” Ohio notes.
Ohio’s rules which regulate stoppage times at grade crossings are “related to railroad safety” because they protect the public from dangers that arise when trains block railroad crossings.
Conclusions the same
but rationales differ
The Ohio Supreme Court concluded that federal law “preempts this longstanding exercise of the State’s police power,” and that ruling “accords with the consensus view” of several state and federal courts throughout the nation, the SCOTUS petition relates.
However, Ohio points out, “the consensus view does not rest on a consensus rationale.” Lower courts are “reaching consistent outcomes” but are doing so “via inconsistent reasoning.”
Some courts say the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995 pre-empts blocked-crossing regulations without regard to the Federal Railroad Safety Act. Others acknowledge that the Safety Act is relevant, but they disagree about whether blocked crossing laws are “related to railroad safety.”
The State of Ohio asserts in its SCOTUS petition that “the stakes are life and death.” When parked trains block crossings for extended periods, “they endanger the public.” First responders are delayed from “reaching emergencies in situations where every second counts.”
A blocked grade crossing in Lockland, Ohio, “delayed firefighters from responding to a fire in March 2022, “allowing for significant fire growth.”
Ohio’s petition refers Supreme Court Justices to an incident that was discussed in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
“Several years ago, an employee at Davis High School had a medical condition where he almost died, and the ambulance was stuck on the other side of a stopped train,” state House Speaker Charles McCall of Atoka told a House committee in 2019. “The EMT had to crawl through the train and catch a ride in a truck to get to the employee to provide him emergency medical care. This is a serious public safety and health care issue that exists statewide.”
The Ohio petition, which was filed on Nov. 15, also refers to an incident last year in Dixmoor, Illinois. Train blockages “caused an ambulance to be rerouted seven times while taking a patient to the hospital.” Upon finally arriving at the medical center “the patient was pronounced dead.”
A similar fatal incident occurred two years ago in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, resulting in a lawsuit that’s mentioned in Ohio’s SCOTUS petition.
Trains blocking at-grade crossings “incentivize bad choices,” Ohio contends in its petition.
“[F]rustrated individuals may be tempted to crawl between stopped railcars” so they can “get on with their day.” And if motorists know that trains “routinely block a crossing for extended periods of time,” drivers may navigate around lowered gates at a crossing “or attempt to beat a train through a crossing … in order to avoid a lengthy delay.”
“Making matters worse,” Ohio asserts, “blocked grade crossings are a persistent problem.” According to the Federal Railroad Administration, the U.S. has roughly 130,000 at-grade railroad crossings; approximately 5,700 of them are in Ohio.
On the last day of 2019 the Federal Railroad Administration began compiling reports of blocked grade crossings; by October 2021 the FRA had received more than 25,000 reported blockages across the nation.
One Facebook page is devoted to “Alabamans to Limit Blocked Rail Crossings.” They contend, “It’s past time for Alabama to pass a state law to limit the amount of time trains can block a road in our state,” the post asserts.
Another Facebook page is reserved for supporters of the “Fight Against Blocked Crossings:” states “When corporate railroads started to build trains up to three and a half miles long, more and more communities have been affected by blocked crossings. As railroads push to make more money, they have put safety and the needs of the community aside.”
CSX was given a deadline of Dec. 15 to respond to Ohio’s petition.