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A school bus carrying 13 children to school, was driven across an unprotected highway grade crossing and was struck by a westbound Union Pacific railroad train. The train, composed of a locomotive, 96 empty freight cars and a caboose, was traveling at 56 m.p.h. The probable cause of this accident was the failure of the school bus driver to ascertain that there was a train approaching the grade crossing and to hold his vehicle until the way was safe for passage. Contributing causes of this accident were the selection of a school bus route which required passage over an unprotected railroad grade crossing; the lack of guidelines for the selection of school bus routes; the direct and reflected glare of the sun which created a vision problem in the bus; the low audibility of the train horn within the bus while the door was open or closed; and the absence of any warning device to advise the driver of the approaching train. Possible contributing causes of this accident were the height of the stop sign and the '2 TRACKS' advisory sign which could have obstructed the driver's view of the approaching train; and the lack of contrast between train headlights and bright daylight which reduced the effect of the headlight as a visual attention-getting warning system. (Author)