What's the backstory behind the US federal regulation that requires buses to stop at railway crossings?
score:7
(Partial answer.) Traffic Laws Annotated [pdf], by the US Department of Transportation (1979), pins the introduction to 1930, albeit without much context, on page 209:
Tracking referenced to the Uniform Vehicle Code from 1930 yields a "Report of Committee on Laws and Ordinances: The President's Highway Safety Conference" from 1949, which offers:
The first Model Traffic Ordinance was prepared in 1927-28 by the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety. It was reviewed and revised by the Conference in 1930, and again in 1934.
That would suggest that a backstory, if any, can be narrowed down to an event that occurred before that report was completed in 1928.
Googling for "train bus crash 1928" suggests there actually was a school bus crash. I'm unable to browse "Safety and economy in school bus transportation - Page 147" by Austin Ruel Meadows (1940) using Google Books, nor am I able to locate the reference on Wikipedia, but Google's snippet is quite promising:
On April 10, 1928, an L. & N. passenger train struck a school bus at the railroad crossing at Mountain Creek, Alabama, killing 1 pupil and injuring 24 ... Witnesses testified that the bus was traveling at a slow rate of speed at the time of the crash.
This doesn't necessarily mean it's the actual backstory, but it seems like an event that could have put school buses on a regulator's radar if it wasn't there already.
Googling the same with 1927 gives another hint, this time in "Decennial Digest, American Digest System - Volume 26 - Page 1294". I cannot access it either, but the snippet is just as interesting:
- Failure to station flagman at crossing may be considered by jury in determining railroad's negligence. — Gray v. ... train at railroad crossing where flagman was stationed, on conflicting evidence, question of whether flagman was present and signaled ... Evidence in action for injuries to bus passenger in collision with railroad car at crossing held to justify submission of case to jury on ground of ...
Put another way, there were court battles at the time, pitching victims on the one hand side, and whoever they were seeking to blame, and at least one of those involved a railroad company that didn't have a flagman at a railway crossing.
Being a bit speculative here, I think it stands to reason that the railroad companies would have lobbied hard to get the liability out of their way, and put the onus of making sure the railway crossing was safe on car drivers rather than man each of those with a flagman.
More post
- 📝 What mysterious Flemish peasant activity is depicted in this painting?
- 📝 Historically, why did the US station their nuclear weapons in Germany for delivery through German pilots?
- 📝 Why were even royals in medieval europe living without running water and sewerage?
- 📝 What was the capacity of Vemork power station?
- 📝 Did Julius Caesar reduce the number of slaves?
- 📝 What kind of incense was used by the Sumerians?
- 📝 What is the history of the use of word dividers in Greek?
- 📝 How is the term "medieval" used to describe non-European civilizations and cultures?
- 📝 What happened in Rome, when the western empire "fell"?
- 📝 How historically accurate is Les Miserables?
- 📝 What numerals did the people of Ireland use before Roman Numerals? (aka, did Ogham include numbers?)
- 📝 Who was the first foreigner to be naturalized as a Mexican citizen in Alta California?
- 📝 What is the origin of Americans sometimes refering to the Second World War "the Good War"?
- 📝 Did starvation or malnutrition occur in indigenous American societies?
- 📝 Why didn't Asians discover Australia?
- 📝 What is the origin of the names of planets in Arabic?
- 📝 Was the Bundesbrief a forgery?
- 📝 Besides Massachusetts and Rhode Island, have any other U.S. states changed their names?
- 📝 Why was decimal time unsuccessful?
- 📝 Was there a Moresnet Conference of 1867?
- 📝 What was the official reason for not invading France until the middle of 1944?
- 📝 Why didn't Great Britain give the colonies voting rights?
- 📝 Fat jokes in ancient Greek comedies
- 📝 Novgorod means "New city". Given such name, what were the old cities in the region?
- 📝 Apart from the obvious ones, what were a single free woman's job options in the U.S. in the end of the 18th Century?
- 📝 How much did brigs of 200 tons vary in 1800?
- 📝 What flags are on display in “Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States”?
- 📝 Was it common to carry a concealed dagger in Spanish California?
- 📝 How/when did the halo shift from being a solid disk behind the head to being a floating ring above the head?
- 📝 What were John Milton's daily reading habits?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What's the backstory behind the US federal regulation that requires buses to stop at railway crossings?
- 📝 What is the significance behind "40 days" that often appears in the Bible?
- 📝 What is the historical evidence behind the claim that the Soviet armies perpetrated mass rapes during their stay in Germany?
- 📝 Is there any science behind this graph that suggests we'd be exploring new galaxies if not for the dark ages?
- 📝 What is the backstory behind the White Sun of Angola?
- 📝 Does the expansion of the U.S federal government after 1865 support the argument that U.S civil war itself was about states' rights?
- 📝 When did people decide that all caps means the writer is shouting?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 Is it true that slavery was endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa previous to the establishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade?
- 📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
- 📝 Is the claim that Hitler came to power democratically justified?
- 📝 When did the Romans finally acknowledge that they were living in an empire?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What is the origin of the stereotype that Polish people lack intelligence?
- 📝 How would a king's servants prove that they are on a task given by the king?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 Why did the Royal Society in 1771 believe that a continent further south than Australia should exist?
- 📝 Why is it that the maiden name is traditionally dropped when a woman is getting married?
- 📝 What disruptions were brought about by Islam that the Arabians saw so many victories?
- 📝 What was the first solar eclipse that was demonstrably predicted in advance?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
- 📝 Is it true that there are more slaves in the world now than ever at one point in history?
- 📝 Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
- 📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
- 📝 What is the evidence to claim that political order in ancient Rome was sufficiently different under "kingdom", "republic" and "empire"?
- 📝 How likely is it that any non-Celtic language was spoken in the British Isles when the Romans invaded?
- 📝 What is the historical basis for the claim that "Taiwan has always been part of China"?
- 📝 How likely it is that a nobleman of the eighteenth century would give written instructions to his maids?