Missouri Revised Statutes

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 389.900 (2026)

Locomotives to be equipped with electric headlights

✓ current as of May 2026
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  389.900.  Locomotives to be equipped with electric headlights — power of same — exceptions. — That all companies, corporations, lessees, owners, operators or receivers of any railroad or railway company operating a railroad or railway in whole or in part in this state, are hereby required to equip, maintain and use upon every locomotive being operated in road service in this state in the nighttime an electric headlight of fifteen hundred candle power brilliancy, measured with the aid of a reflector, and classification signals not less than six candle power; provided, that nothing in this law shall be so construed as to prevent a locomotive engine whose headlight has become defective while on the road from proceeding to the most convenient terminal or division point where the necessary facilities exist for remedying such defect, but nothing in this law shall relieve any such company, corporation, lessee, owner, operator or receiver of any railroad or railway company of any liability for injury or damage to persons or property, or for the death of any person, caused by proceeding with an engine having such defective headlight; and provided further, that the provisions of this law shall not apply to independent lines of railroad less than seventy-five miles in length; and provided further, that the provisions of this law shall not apply during the first ninety days of a strike of the particular employees whose duties are to repair and maintain electric headlights.

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(RSMo 1939 § 5274)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 4845; 1919 § 10032

CROSS REFERENCE:

Division of motor carrier and railroad safety abolished, duties and functions transferred to highways and transportation commission and department of transportation, 226.008

(1968) The failure of locomotive engineer to give statutory crossing signals does not give drivers right to approach blind crossing heedlessly, if they know of existence of crossing.  Hupman v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. (A.), 429 S.W.2d 343.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases, 1968–1997 · leading case: Bryan v. Norfolk & W. Ry. Co., 21 F. Supp. 2d 1030 (E.D. Mo. 1997).
Bryan v. Norfolk & W. Ry. Co., 21 F. Supp. 2d 1030 (E.D. Mo. 1997). · cites it 2× “Plaintiff first argues that defendant N & W was negligent by failing to fulfill its statutory duty to ring a bell, sound a horn, or blow a whistle at least 80 rods from the crossing, and to repeat the same at intervals prior to reaching the crossing so as to warn Mr.”
Hupman v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R., 429 S.W.2d 343 (Mo. Ct. App. 1968). · cites it 2× “2 implied an obligation of defendant railroad to *344 sound more warning than is required by Section 389.900 V.A.M.S. The testimony of the many witnesses can be outlined with more brevity and clarity if we first describe the permanent physical layout of the area surrounding the…”
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