You should realize that there are federal regs that are just as lacking in common sense on the flip side of this.

For example: rail engineers can work only 12 hours at a stretch. Once they hit that limit, some rail companies will stop the train right where it is - and I mean right where it is. If it's blocking your road/driveway, oh well. The engineer had to stop to comply with the FRA regs. Then the rail company will transport a fresh engineer to the train to continue on.

Well... with work schedules as they have been recently, with the rail companies allowing more rail engineer positions to go unfilled to lighten their expenses, sometimes trains wait for an engineer. Or a conductor, who is also necessary for the train to move.