190 Pa. 333 | Pa. | 1899
While the evidence on which the judgment of nonsuit was entered clearly shows that the defendant railway company was negligent in not giving any warning, by bell, whistle or otherwise, of the approach of its locomotive, it also appears that the plaintiff himself was guilty of contributory negligence in not properly complying with the now familiar rule: “ Stop, look and listen.” On leaving the office of the Reading Gas Works, where he was employed, he stopped on the doorsill, about eighteen inches higher than the pavement, and looking over the tops of cars of the coal train then standing on the middle track on Canal street, he neither saw nor heard any sign of a locomotive approaching on the north track. He then proceeded to cross through an opening, about twelve feet wide, that had been made
It must be very obvious that the proper time and place for the plaintiff to have “stopped and looked” was just when he emerged from the opening in the standing coal train and before stepping on the north track. He would then have had a view of the same for a considerable distance in the direction from which the engine came. His unfortunate mistake was in not “looking” then. In answer to the question, “whether if he had stopped and looked before stepping on the north track, he could have avoided the collision,” he truthfully answered in the affirmative.
It necessarily follows that the court rightly refused to take off the judgment of nonsuit.
Judgment affirmed.