181 Pa. 237 | Pa. | 1897
Opinion by
The reciprocal duties of railroad companies and of passengers alighting from or getting on cars at stations or stopping places have been very clearly defined in the decisions. It is the duty of the railroad company to provide a safe and convenient means of passage to and from its passenger cars, and it is the duty of a passenger to comply with the company’s reasonable rules and regulations for entering and leaving the cars, by using the way provided. Knowledge by a passenger that a safe and convenient platform has been provided is notice to him of a rule that passengers should get off and on the cars at that place: Railroad Co. v. Zebe, 37 Pa. 420; Drake v. R. R. Co., 137 Pa. 352. In the opinion in the case first cited it was said by Thompson, J.: “ ... if a safe platform or other equally safe means be provided for exit, it is as much the duty of a passenger to leave by it, as it is for him to remain inside the cars when running. The existence of such means of exit indicates as distinctly their purpose, and that it is a regulation of the carriers that they bé
It is true that the duty of a person about to cross a railroad track to stop, look and listen for an approaching train is not always applicable to a passenger at a station going to or from his train; the obligation upon him may be totally different from that of a person at a public crossing: R. R. Co. v. White, 88 Pa. 327; Kohler v. R. R. Co., 135 Pa. 346. If the way provided is across a track he may rely upon the performance by the company of the duty to keep the track clear while passengers are in the act of passing between the train and the station. But .this is when a way is provided and the passenger is impliedly invited to take it. If a passenger disregards the rules of the company by passing to or from the cars on the opposite side from the station or platform provided, he does so at his peril.
At the station where the plaintiff was injured there were five tracks. An elevated platform extended along the side of the track nearest the station, and from this platform steps led to. two over-head crossings, one north and one south of the station. The space between the tracks had been planked for the convenience of the employees of the road and of passengers who might want to reach the fifth track, which at this point branched from the main line. The plaintiff, who was familiar with the locality, came to the station on a train which ran on the second track, alighted from the train on the side away from the station and platform with the intention of walking across the third, fourth and fifth tracks in order to reach by a shorter route the works at which he was employed. The morning was dark and stormy, and as he stepped upon the third track he was struck by a car which was running at the rate of six or eight miles an hour, and which could have been seen by him when it was at
The judgment is affirmed.