HOUSE BILL No. 5536 March 22, 2000, Introduced by Rep. Basham and referred to the Committee on Transportation. A bill to amend 1993 PA 354, entitled "Railroad code of 1993," by amending section 391 (MCL 462.391). THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT: 1 Sec. 391. (1) A railroad shall not permit a train to 2 obstruct vehicular traffic on a public street or highway for 3 longer than 5 minutes at any 1 time, except the obstruction shall 4 not be considered a violation under the following circumstances: 5 (a) If the train is continuously moving in the same direc- 6 tion at not less than 10 miles per hour for not longer than 7 7 minutes. 8 (b) If the railroad can show that the incident occurred as a 9 result of a verifiable accident, mechanical failure, or unsafe 10 condition. 06147'00 TJS 2 1 (2) A railroad shall not permit successive train movements 2 to obstruct vehicular traffic on a public street or highway until 3 all vehicular traffic previously delayed by such train movements 4 has been cleared. 5 (3) A railroad company shall not permit its employees to 6 allow the activation of active traffic control devices at a rail- 7 road grade crossing for more than 2 minutes if there is no inten- 8 tion to move a train or track equipment through the crossing 9 within 20 seconds to 60 seconds after the activation of the 10 devices. 11 (4) Each offense under this section shall be a separate vio- 12 lation punishableby a fine of not more than $500.00 unlessAS 13 FOLLOWS: 14 (A) FOR A FIRST OFFENSE, A FINE OF NOT MORE THAN $500.00. 15 (B) FOR A SECOND OFFENSE IF THE SECOND OFFENSE OCCURRED 16 WITHIN 5 DAYS OF THE FIRST OFFENSE, A FINE OF MORE THAN $500.00 17 BUT NOT MORE THAN $5,000.00. 18 (C) FOR A THIRD OR SUBSEQUENT OFFENSE IF THE THIRD OR SUBSE- 19 QUENT OFFENSE OCCURRED WITHIN 5 DAYS OF THE PREVIOUS OFFENSE, A 20 FINE OF MORE THAN $500.00 BUT NOT MORE THAN $10,000.00. 21 (5) IF the railroad is willfully, deliberately, and negli- 22 gently blocking vehicular traffic,and thenthe fine shall be 23 not more than$1,000.00$10,000.00 and the costs of 24 prosecution. 25 (6)(5)All fines civil or otherwise collected by a local 26 unit of government in excess of $10,000.00 annually from the 06147'00 3 1 enforcement of a local ordinance substantially similar to this 2 section shall be allocated as follows: 3 (a) Fifteen percent shall be retained by each local unit of 4 government for costs of enforcement of the ordinance. 5 (b) Eighty-five percent shall be deposited in a railroad 6 grade crossing safety fund. The revenue collected in this fund 7 shall be used solely for railroad grade crossing safety projects 8 in these local units of government. 06147'00 Final page. TJS