James Jones, individually and as next friend of Tabatha Jones and Paula Jones, his minor daughters, brought suit against Central of Georgia Railroad Company to recover damages incurred when the vehicle in which Tabatha and Paula were passengers collided with the railroad’s stationary freight car located on the tracks at an intersection in Americus. The trial court granted the railroad’s motion for summary judgment and Jones appeals.
The record establishes these uncontroverted facts: on August 30, 1986, appellant’s daughters were passengers, along with their grandmother and three aunts, in an automobile driven by Charles James Fortson when the automobile collided with a stationary freight car at approximately 1:10 a.m. Fortson was transporting the grandmother to the hospital because she had been experiencing chest pains. Fortson testified in deposition that during daylight the crossing was visible from a distance of 700 to 1,000 feet; that on a clear night the crossing would be illuminated by a vehicle’s headlamps from a distance of 200 feet; but that on the night in question, he did not see the freight car until less than 20 feet away from it. The evidence is uncontroverted that Fortson was familiar with the crossing, having traversed the street once or twice every week for years, and knew trains used that crossing on a daily basis. The street approached the crossing at aj downgrade and had a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour. Fortson testified he was traveling between 35 and 40 miles per hour down the street and had his foot on the gas pedal just before he saw the freight train in the crossing. From the approach to the crossing taken byl Fortson, there were seven advance warning signs posted on or along] the street, consisting of two orange reflectorized railroad warning| signs at 622 and 614 feet from the crossing, white pavement painl extending from 349 feet to 297 feet before the crossing, a reflectorizedl yellow “Stop Ahead” sign 313 feet from the crossing, a white stop bai 19 feet from the crossing, a reflectorized red stop sign 10 feet from the crossing, and a reflectorized white railroad crossbuck sign 9 feet froi the crossing.
Fortson subsequently pled guilty to a charge of driving too fas) for conditions and colliding with an object. Although the record con tains statements from the six passengers that they did not smell aleo *807 hoi on Fortson or notice any erratic driving or unusual behavior by him, Fortson acknowledged in his response to requests for admission the existence and accuracy of a blood alcohol test performed an hour and a half after the collision which revealed he had a blood alcohol level of .11 percent.
“ ‘Although negligence cases are not frequently susceptible to final adjudication by motion for summary judgment, nevertheless, in cases of plain, palpable and indisputable evidence, summary judgment may be awarded. (Cits.)’ [Cit.]”
Jenkins v. Storey Trucking Co.,
“It is well settled that there can be no proximate cause where there has intervened between the act of the defendant and the injury to the plaintiff, an independent, intervening, act of someone other than the defendant, which was not foreseeable by defendant, was not triggered by defendant’s act, and which was sufficient of itself to cause the injury. [Cits.]”
Union Carbide Corp. v. Holton,
Accordingly, even construing the evidence most favorably to appellant as the respondent and assuming appellee was negligent allowing its freight car to obstruct the intersection, the evidence clearly demonstrates that Fortson’s admitted action of driving while intoxicated and driving too fast for conditions and colliding with an object (i.e., the freight car) constituted the intervening efficient act which caused the accident and the injuries for which appellant sought recov *808 ery. Both parties argue the applicability of various cases involving intersections obstructed by railroad cars. However, even conceding questions of fact exist in the case sub judice regarding the weather conditions around the crossing at the time of the collision, the instant case, unlike those cited by the parties, contains uncontroverted evidence that the driver of the vehicle colliding with the freight train had a legally proscribed percentage of alcohol in his blood, was driving 35 to 40 miles per hour when visibility was less than 20 feet, and pled guilty to driving at an unsafe rate of speed for the weather conditions asserted and to colliding with an object.
Therefore, we find no error in the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of appellee. See generally
Willis v. Allen,
Judgment affirmed.