Railroad safety — Utah Permit Test

Trains have the right-of-way 100% of the time, over ambulances, fire engines, cars, the police, and pedestrians.

A train cannot stop and cannot steer. Nothing else on the road outranks it, however urgent it is.

Trains have the right-of-way 100% of the time—over ambulances, fire engines, cars, the police, and pedestrians.

Once in emergency braking, a 100-car freight train traveling at 55 mph needs more than a mile to stop, which is about 18 football fields.

A mile is far past the point where the engineer first sees you. Being on the tracks at all is the whole of the danger.

Once the train is set into emergency braking, a 100-car freight train traveling at 55 mph will need more than a mile to stop—that’s approximately 18 football fields.

A train may extend three feet or more outside the steel rail, so the safety zone reaches well beyond the rails.

Standing clear of the rail is not standing clear of the train. Three feet of it hangs over the edge.

A train may extend three feet or more outside the steel rail, making the safety zone for pedestrians well beyond the rails.

A typical locomotive weighs about 400,000 pounds, and with 100 railcars added the train can weigh about 6,000 tons.

The weight ratio of a car to a train is the same as a soda can to a car, which is what a collision is like.

A typical locomotive weighs approximately 400,000 pounds or 200 tons.

A driver whose vehicle stalls on a Utah crossing should get everybody out and off the tracks at once, and if a train is coming should run toward it at an angle away from the tracks.

Debris is thrown forward along the train’s path. Running toward the train at an angle takes you out of it.

If a train is coming, stay clear of the tracks and run toward the approaching train at an angle away from the train.

Freight trains do not travel on a predictable schedule and passenger schedules change, so a driver should expect a train on any track at any time.

There is no timetable that makes a crossing safe. The only safe assumption is that something is coming.

Expect a train on any track at any time. Freight trains do not travel on a predictable schedule.

If there are rails on the railroad ties a Utah driver should assume the track is in use, even where there are weeds or the track looks rusty.

A rusty rail carries a train just as well as a shiny one, and a disused line is very rarely disused.

If there are rails on the railroad ties, assume that the track is in use, even if there are weeds or the track looks rusty.

Walking down a train track in Utah is illegal and dangerous, and a driver should cross tracks only at designated pedestrian or roadway crossings.

By the time the engineer sees somebody on the track it is far too late for the train to do anything about it.

Cross tracks only at designated pedestrian or roadway crossings.

Who has the right-of-way at a Utah railroad crossing?

The train, always. A train cannot stop and cannot steer. Nothing else on the road outranks it, however urgent it is. Utah Driver Handbook 2026-2027, p.88: “Trains have the right-of-way 100% of the time—over ambulances, fire engines, cars, the police, and pedestrians.”