If the traffic through a railway crossing is prohibited and there are no traffic lights, road signs, markings and a barrier, the driver must stop:

Explanation

At least 10 metres from the nearest rail.

The law defines a prioritised chain of "places of stopping" for a level crossing. If there is a traffic light, a stop sign, a stop marking or a barrier, you must stop before that element. But when none of these exists and passage is prohibited, the only remaining reference is the rail itself, and you must stop at least 10 metres short of the nearest rail.

The safety reason for this distance is simple and entirely physical: the body of a train and its carriages overhang the width of the rails, they sway laterally at speed, and the airflow behind a train can drag light objects along. Ten metres also gives you sufficient view along both directions of the line and, if your car stalls, leaves a safe distance for pushing it or reversing it away. Stopping right up against the rail means that any small error in braking, or any slip, takes you into the path of a train whose stopping distance is hundreds of metres.

The common exam trap is confusing the two figures 5 and 10. Memorise it like this: 5 metres relates to a barrier, 10 metres relates to the rail. Whenever the word "rail" appears in the question and no equipment exists, the answer is 10 metres.

• 5 metres is a correct figure in the crossing rules, but it is the stopping distance from a barrier, not from the rail; that very substitution is the commonest mistake in this question. • 7 metres is not defined for any stopping case at a level crossing and is included merely to fill the gap between 5 and 10.

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