School buses are required to stop at the crossing, and open the door to listen for the trains.
The trains are required to blow their whistles (except we have some intersections now where they trains don’t late at night, but they are labelled with signs so motoroists know to be extra careful.
I do fly across tracks, but I always glance both ways, and I’m pretty sure I’d notice a train barreling down. Of course, that assumes a good sight line.
In my opinion, it should be impossible to shut down the gate power without lowering the gates. That would be a pain for motorists, but then the people working on the tracks would have to go manually raise the gates, which would make it clear to them that they had shut off the gates.
There should also be an alarm when the gates are off. Maybe even a blinking light set powered by batteries, in case there is a general power failure.
THAT is a really good idea. I wonder if I ought to call the trainmaster and suggest it.