(a) The operator of any motor vehicle carrying passengers for hire, of any school bus, or of any vehicle carrying explosives or flammable liquids as a cargo or as such part of a cargo as to constitute a hazard, before crossing at grade any track of a railroad, shall stop the vehicle, and while so stopped, shall listen through an open door or open window, and look in both directions along the track for any approaching train and for signals indicating the approach of a train, and shall proceed only upon exercising due care after stopping, looking, and listening as required by this section. Upon proceeding, the operator of such a vehicle shall cross only in a gear that will ensure there will be no necessity for changing gears while traversing the crossing, and shall not shift gears while crossing the tracks.
(b) Division (a) of this section does not apply at any street railway grade crossings within the Municipality, or to abandoned tracks, spur tracks, side tracks, and industrial tracks when the Public Utilities Commission has authorized and approved the crossing of the tracks without making the stop required by division (a) of this section.
(ORC 4511.63)
(c) The Department of Transportation and local authorities, with the approval of the Department, may designate dangerous highway crossings over railroad tracks, and erect stop signs thereat. When stop signs are erected, the operator of any vehicle shall stop within 50, but not less than 15, feet from the nearest rail of the railroad tracks, and shall exercise due care before proceeding across the grade crossing.
(ORC 4511.61; Ord. 11-1994. Passed 1-18-94.)
(d) Whoever violates division (a) of this section is guilty of one of the following:
(1) Except as otherwise provided in division (d)(2) of this section, a minor misdemeanor.
(2) If the offender previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to one or more violations of this section, or a state law or municipal ordinance that is substantially equivalent to this section, a misdemeanor of the fourth degree.
(ORC 4511.61(B))