VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Civ. No. 18.081
Railroad’s Duty to Sound Horn
A railroad approaching a public highway rail grade crossing has a duty to sound its horn, with
two long blasts, one short blast, and one long blast, beginning between 15 and 20 seconds before
entering the crossing and continuing until it occupies the crossing.
If a railroad fails to perform this duty, then it is negligent [unless (the engineer in good faith began
sounding the horn between 20 and 25 seconds before the crossing because he was unable to precisely
estimate the time of arrival in the crossing; the train was traveling faster than 60 mph and began
sounding its horn a quarter mile before the crossing; the train was stopped in close proximity to the
crossing and the engineer could determine that the crossing was not obstructed and that [the crossing
was equipped with automatic flashing lights and gates and the gates were fully lowered; there were no
conflicting highway movements approaching the crossing])].
History
Virginia Model Jury Instructions – Civil, Release 26, April 2026. The unannotated set, posted by the Supreme Court of Virginia at vacourts.gov; the book states that it is made available with the permission of the publisher, Matthew Bender & Company, Inc.
Provenance
- Source
- vacourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-11
- Edition
- civ-2026-04-01
- Content hash
42551bfdf3b822200355fa717dbeade30964b251616fff6add5b180559308b14
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