Every school day, hundreds of buses carrying children to school throughout Texas cross railroad tracks that are not protected by safety gates.
A CBS News Texas investigation identified 704 railroad crossings used by school buses where federal records do not show gates. Nearly 300 of them have a history of crashes, including 29 where at least one person was killed.
Despite past tragedies, change can move slowly. In one East Texas community, gates were recently installed at a crossing more than seven years after a school bus crash killed a teenager.
In January 2019, a Union Pacific train struck an Athens Independent School District school bus, killing 13-year-old Christopher Bonilla and injuring a 9-year-old girl.
The bus driver told investigators that he did not see or hear the train. At the time, the crossing at Cream Level Road had no gates or flashing lights. It was marked only by a yield sign and an X-shaped railroad crossbuck sign.
After the crash, Athens ISD stopped using the crossing for its bus routes. The community then began a multi-year push for improvements.
A proposal to close the crossing was rejected by Athens city leaders in 2023, in part due to concerns with emergency response times. Federal approvals and coordination with the railroad also contributed to delays.
While the community waited, two more crashes occurred at the crossing in 2023, although neither involved a school bus.
Flashing lights and gates were finally installed this summer, more than seven years after the deadly school bus crash.
“I’ll be honest with you. Seven years to get to a resolution and to get to a project to improve that location for me is frustrating,” Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Marc Williams said.
Meanwhile, Texas school buses continue to use hundreds of other crossings without gates.
The CBS News Texas I-Team compared federal records identifying railroad crossings used by school buses with decades of Federal Railroad Administration crash data. The review identified 295 ungated crossings with at least one reported crash that are along a school bus route. Together, those locations have records of:
550 crashes36 people killed249 people injured
Those figures include all reported crashes at the crossings, not just those involving school buses, from 1975 through 2026.
Some locations have repeated crash histories. At one ungated crossing in Hunt County, a train struck and killed a UPS driver in 2025. Federal records show it was the second fatal crash at that crossing; records also show the crossing is part of a school bus route.
Federal records also show no gates at crossings along school bus routes with a history of multiple vehicle crashes including:
10 reported crashes at a crossing at Magnolia Avenue in Beaumont8 reported crashes at a crossing at Zaragosa Street in Laredo8 reported crashes at a crossing at Johnson Lane near ArgyleMore than $1 billion for rail projects
Texas officials say the state is investing more money in rail safety and infrastructure than ever before.
The Texas Legislature allocated $250 million to a new program that will award grants to projects that separate roads and railroad tracks. TxDOT was also awarded more than $756 million in federal funding for 12 rail grade separation projects across the state.
Grade separations remove the point where trains and vehicles cross paths, such as constructing a bridge to carry traffic over a train track. But they are often large, expensive projects.
That means most of the 704 ungated crossings used by school buses are unlikely to see major changes soon.
Williams said school bus traffic is one factor TxDOT considers when deciding which crossings should receive improvements. The state also considers train volume, vehicle traffic, crash history and existing warning equipment. Officials say the goal is to direct limited money toward locations with the greatest risk.
Williams also cautioned that gates and flashing lights do not prevent every collision.
“We do see crashes that occur even at locations that do have gates and signals,” he said.
However, out of the 10 crashes the CBS News Texas I-Team identified involving Texas school buses and trains, only two occurred at crossings with gates.
Training bus drivers for railroad crossings
As Texas grows, so will the amount of freight moving across the state. According to a recent TxDOT report, shippers use rail to move 410 million tons of freight across the state, which is projected to grow to more than 700 million tons by 2050. That growth increases the chances of trains and school buses crossing paths.
New funding for safety projects may reduce the risk at some crossings, but at hundreds of others, the last line of defense remains the person behind the wheel.
Sharon Huecker, who trains new school bus drivers in the Dallas area for the Region 10 Education Service Center, said that despite limited time for training, she never rushes the lesson on railroad crossings.
Out of the roughly 20 hours she spends with each driver, Huecker said she will devote up to 1 hour and 20 minutes on the topic.
“I go longer just because it is so important,” she said.
The training covers where drivers should stop, how to look and listen for trains and how to make sure the entire bus can clear the tracks before moving forward.
“There are many incidents that have been documented between trains and school buses where drivers get either complacent or don’t realize, maybe once they cross the tracks, that their rear end is still hanging over the tracks,” Huecker said.
The concern is even greater at crossings without gates.
“They have a bus full of what, maybe 40 or 50 students, and their lives are in that driver’s hands,” Huecker said. “That driver has to be diligent when crossing those railroad tracks.”
I-Team Investigations
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