Q. Dear Honk: There is a defunct railroad line that has been shut down for many years. It runs parallel to Bastanchury Road in Fullerton. The crossing gates have been removed, as well as all of the signs, except for one that states that the tracks are out of service. In spite of all this, school buses continue to stop at the tracks. Does California law mandate that school buses must stop at out-of-use tracks, when there is no chance of being hit by a train?
– Bob Bergstrom, Fullerton
A. Sometimes, yes.
A state law is in play for buses, trucks with employees other than those in the cab, and some commercial trucks holding hazardous materials.
“A school bus is required to stop unless specific signs exempt the bus from stopping that must be posted,” said Sgt. Jeffrey Beaty, of your town’s Traffic Bureau in the Police Department.
And the special signs require jumping through hoops to get them.
Of course, it is all about safety.
The driver of affected vehicles must stop 15 to 50 feet from the tracks, look both ways and listen. Some such vehicles, of course, wouldn’t be able to stop real fast.
“The law is ensuring that they are crossing the tracks in a safe manner,” the sergeant said in an email. “If a busload of people is hit by a train, the casualties could be devastating. The same can be said for hazardous materials that could cause an environmental disaster or potentially injure or kill someone close enough to the spill.”
Why is it so difficult to get the special signs installed? Honk tried to get an answer from state officials, but so far has failed to get one. If he does, he will return with an answer.
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Q. We recently received a Notice of Delinquent Renewal for our license plates and smog check on our car. No prior notice was sent. This delinquent notice mentioned a penalty of $77. When we went to AAA and paid the fees, including the fine, we were told by the clerk that the Department of Motor Vehicles says it is not responsible for letting us know when our registration tag expired! In our experience, the DMV has been sending us notices in advance for 60-plus years! We have since talked with several friends who only discovered they were delinquent when they looked at their rear license plates and saw that the registration tags had expired – one was late by more than a year! They had not received any notice from the DMV. None of us has seen or heard anything about a change in DMV policy.
– Ginny and Wylie Carlyle, Irvine
A. Under the law, “the DMV is legally required to send renewal notices at least 60 days prior to the date the registration fees are due,” Ronald Ongtoaboc, a DMV spokesman, told Honk in an email.
But …
In the end, vehicle owners are still responsible to keep current their registrations, he said, “whether or not they received a notice.”
Ongtoaboc suggested ensuring the mailing address is up to date with the DMV, and he mentioned that Californians can sign up for email notices instead of paper ones.
A Honk daughter realized her driver’s license was expired only when it was rejected for ID at a doctor’s office. She immediately renewed it online.
Kind of the same drill – the responsibility is the motorist’s.
“The legal requirement to send a driver’s license (DL) renewal notice pertains only if a knowledge test is required, however the DMV currently sends renewal notices to all customers 90 days prior to the DL expiration date regardless of whether a test is required,” Ongtoaboc said.
HONKIN’ FACT: To offset the construction of its toll roads, which include the 241 and the 73, the Transportation Corridor Agencies has set aside 2,000 acres in 17 chunks in Orange County that are to forever remain nature. One of those, the 23-acre Live Oak Plaza Conservation Area near Trabuco Canyon, is getting weeded this month by cattle from 5 Bar Beef, an Orange County ranch, to, among other things, protect against a wildfire.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk