The plaintiff brought suit against Roop Snow, Stocky Bryant, and Will Furlow for the alleged tortious death of her husband. The petition was in two counts. The first count alleged that at about twelve o’clock at night the truck owned and operated by the defendant Snow was stopped beside the paved highway in Berrien County, because the water in the radiator was too low and it had become heated. It was parked at an angle, the rear end being nearer the center of the road, the front fender being within nine inches of the edge of the road and nine and three-fourths feat from the center of the road, and the rear end within
The second count alleged the position of the truck as the same, and the same negligence as to the parking and failure to place warnings, and alleged further that the place where the truck was parked was three hundred feet from the crest óf a hill and that the truck was parked without bright lights being switched on while it Avas parked, and thus caused the car of Furlow to be driven against the deceased. No demurrer or answer Avas filed by Bryant, the driver of the car; Furlow filed an answer and a demurrer, and Snow, the OAA'ner of the truck, filed his demurrer. Exceptions Avere taken to the sustaining of these demurrers. Snow, alone of defendants in error, filed briefs in this court.
We may say in the beginning that as to the defendant, Snow, the allegations as to negligence in the parking of the truck shoAved no violation of any duty owed by Snow to the deceased, a pedestrian. As was said in Platt v. Southern Photo Material Co., 4 Ga. App. 159 (
Conceding in the present case that the failure to dim the lights may have been negligence, was such failure the proximate cause of the injury to plaintiff’s husband who had been standing for several minutes talking to the driver of the truck? In other words, was the injury complained of here a natural and probable consequence of the failure of the truck operator to dim his lights upon the approach of the car from the opposite direction? It will be noted that the front end of the truck was nearer the edge of the road than the rear end, and that necessarily the lights were not shining directly down the road on which the car of Furlow was approaching. If the front left fender was only nine inches from the edge of the twenty-one foot pavement, the lights were themselves shining off the pavement. In proximate cause cases, “The rule is, that, in order to recover for an injury alleged to have resulted from the negligence of another, the injury must be the natural and probable consequence of the negligence; or, as otherwise stated, the wrong and the resulting damage must be known by common experience to be naturally and usually in sequence. The damage, according to the usual course of events, must follow from the wrong. . . If damages are traceable to an act of negligence, but are not its legal or material consequence, or if other and contingent circumstances preponderate largely in causing the injurious effect, such damages are too remote and contingent to be the basis of a recovery.” Mayor &c. of Macon v. Dykes, 103 Ga. 847 (
In Letton v. Kitchen, 166 Ga. 121 (
The second count differs from the first in that it is alleged that the driver of the truck did not have his bright lights burning. It is not alleged that he did not have his parking lights burning. That being true, and on demurrer it will be so construed, the count
We think, however, that a cause of action was alleged.as against the owner and the operator of the car which struck and killed the deceased. It is alleged that these defendants drove their car, while at a speed of forty-five miles per hour, seven or eight feet to the left of the center of the road and killed the plaintiff’s husband. In 1 Blashfield’s Cyclopedia Automobile Law, 354, we find the following: “The fact that the headlights of an approaching machine make it more difficult for a motorist to see pedestrians or other persons on the side of the road does not relieve him of the duty to use proper care to observe their presence, but rather requires that he exercise greater caution in that respect.” In 3-4 Huddy’s Automobile Law, 91, it is said: “When the view of an automobilist is obscured by smoke, or weather conditions, or is cut off by an obstruction, or where his eyes are blinded by the sun or by lights, he is required to exercise care and caution in keeping a lookout commensurate with the increased danger.” Also see on page 59: “The fact that a driver is temporarily blinded by the lights of an approaching automobile is to be considered on the question whether he is negligent in the management of his machine. If, however, he continues his progress, negligence may be charged against him.” See Ward v. Donahue,
The judgment is affirmed as to Roop Snow, and reversed as to Will Furlow.
Affirmed in pfiri md reversed in part.
