668
Opinion of the Court
of railroad negligence bore no particular significance on the State's safety efforts beyond that which the State wished to give it. Certainly there is no explicit indication in the regulations of 23 CFR pt. 924 that the terms of the Federal Government's bargain with the States require modification of this regime of separate spheres of responsibility. And, contrary to the view of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, it does not necessarily follow that "[t]he hit-or-miss common law method runs counter to a statutory scheme of planned prioritization." Hatfield v. Burlington Northern R. Co., 958 F. 2d 320, 324 (1992). In fact, the scheme of negligence liability could just as easily complement these regulations by encouraging railroads—the entities arguably most familiar with crossing conditions—to provide current and complete information to the state agency responsible for determining priorities for improvement projects in accordance with § 924.9. In light of the relatively stringent standard set by the language of § 434 and the presumption against preemption, and given that the regulations provide no affirmative indication of their effect on negligence law, we are not prepared to find pre-emption solely on the strength of the general mandates of 23 CFR pt. 924.
Likewise, the requirement that the States comply with the MUTCD does not cover the subject matter of the tort law of grade crossings. Petitioner's contrary reading rests primarily on language that appears in Part VIII of the Manual, entitled "Traffic Control Systems for Railroad-Highway Grade Crossings":
"[T]he highway agency and the railroad company are entitled to jointly occupy the right-of-way in the conduct of their assigned duties. This requires joint responsibility in the traffic control function between the public agency and the railroad. The determination of need and selection of devices at a grade crossing is made by the public agency with jurisdictional authority. Subject to such determination and selection, the design, installa-
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