78 Pa. Super. 313 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1922
Opinion by
The accident out of which this action arose occurred at the intersection of Swedesboro Road and Crooked Lane. The evidence produced by the plaintiff showed conclusively the negligence of defendant’s driver. The defendant does not deny his own negligence but seeks to set aside the verdict and judgment on the ground of
Keeping this rule in mind we find that the plaintiff was traveling westward on Swedesboro Road with his car well under control. When about eighty-five feet from the intersection with Crooked Lane he began sounding his Klaxon horn and continued to do so until he reached the intersection and also slackened his speed so that he was not traveling in excess of ten miles an hour. His view to the right on Crooked Lane was interfered with by a high bank and a tree, but as the front of his car reached Crooked Lane, from his seat, which was about five feet back, he could see forty-five feet down the slope to his right and saw or heard nothing of an approaching car. He therefore proceeded at slackened speed and after glancing to his left and then immediately to his right again, as was entirely proper, when the front of his car was four feet from the center of Crooked
The defendant contends that as he was only fifty feet away when plaintiff first saw him the court below was bound to rule as a matter of law that the vehicles were approaching the intersection at the same time and there was therefore an “affirmative duty” upon the plaintiff to keep out of the defendant’s way: Weber v. Greenebaum, 270 Pa. 382; but he overlooks the fact that when plaintiff first saw defendant and the latter was fifty feet from the crossing, he, the plaintiff, was not ap
The plaintiff in this case entered upon the crossing of this intersection of public roads without any negligence or lack of care on his part. When his car had traveled almost half of the intersecting road the defendant’s car suddenly loomed up only fifty feet away from the crossing, but at that time the plaintiff was not approaching the intersection, he was already on it and he had good ground for believing that to stop his car then would inevitably result in a collision and that Ms only way of escape was to proceed. When plaintiff was approaching the intersection and five or ten feet distant therefrom, defendant, at the rate of speed he was traveling, was probably ninety or a hundred feet away from the intersection, but could not be seen owing to the bank and tree obstructing the vision. The jury would have been justified in finding that the plaintiff approached the crossing “substantially in advance” of the defendant approaching from the right. Having entered upon the crossing of this intersection without negligence on Ms part, the plaintiff cannot be convicted of contributory negligence as a matter of law because in a moment of sudden peril
The case is distinguished from Gosling v. Gross, 66 Pa. Superior Ot. 304, in that in that case it was the plaintiff’s own negligence in failing to have his car under control which placed him in the position of sudden peril from which he endeavored to escape by going ahead.
The judgment is affirmed.