256 A.D. 798 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1939
There were no eyewitnesses to the accident in which plaintiff's intestate sustained fatal injuries on August 10, 1935, while she was driving alone in a heavy rain, east-bound on State highway No. 3 from Felts Mills to Great Bend, Jefferson county. At a point one and four-tenths miles east of Felts Mills the two-lane concrete highway leads straight and upgrade for several hundred feet to a point seventy-nine feet short of its crest where the road changes from an eighteen-foot concrete pavement to a macadam asphaltic surface of the same width. For eastbound motorists, of whom the decedent was one, the road continues thence straight and upgrade a short distance to the crest of the hill from which point it descends around a banked turn to the right or south. The Court of Claims has found that this banked turn to the right — just over the crest of the hill — was a sharp curve and that its road surface, being worn and smooth, was extremely slippery when wet; that the only warning to east-bound traffic of these conditions was a “ Slow ” sign erected about two hundred feet west of the crest of the grade; that within two years prior to the date of decedent’s death and while the highway was under the patrol system, a number of accidents had occurred at the same curve and in like manner to that involved in the instant case. The decedent was found at the lower or easterly end of the descending curve seated against an embankment which borders the south side of the road. She was conscious but had sustained a deep cut in the left side of the neck which caused her death before medical
The judgment should be affirmed, with costs.
All concur, except Crosby, J., who dissents and votes for reversal on the law and for dismissal of the claim, on the ground that no negligence on the part of the State is established. Present — ¡Bears, P. J., Crosby, Lewis, Cunningham and Dowling, JJ.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.