Originally Posted by
WildCat
It really shouldn't matter, you don't enter a RR crossing if you can't clear it.
Pretty much this. If he could see that there wasn't enough room to get his vehicle all the way across the tracks, then he should have waited until there was room to do so before beginning to cross the tracks.
This was obviously a local parade, the organizers surely knew it was crossing an active rail line. There's no reason there couldn't have been a cop there clearing the parade vehicles to cross the tracks one by one. However, even if they'd never thought of such a provision there's ultimately no excuse for the driver; that was simply negligent.