House Bill 639 - Railroad Safety Omnibus Act

• Requires driver license handbooks and school driver education curricula to include instruction on Emergency Notification Systems (ENS) for reporting unsafe conditions at highway-rail and pathway grade crossings, including unique crossing inventory numbers and emergency phone numbers.

• Creates a Class 1 misdemeanor offense for misusing ENS systems by calling or accessing them for purposes other than emergency communications related to unsafe crossing conditions.

• Mandates that school bus drivers evacuate passengers and report stalled buses on railroad tracks to both the dispatching railroad and their school bus transportation system.

• Limits freight trains operating on main lines to a maximum of 8,500 feet in length and requires Class I railroads to operate trains with a minimum crew of two persons, with escalating fines for violations ($250-$1,000 for first offense, up to $10,000 for third offense).

• Requires railroads to maintain operational wayside detector systems on main lines at intervals not greater than every 10 miles and establishes protocols for train crews to inspect and address detected defects, with civil penalties of $500-$25,000 per violation.