Fowler v. International Railway Co.

Headnote

Negligence — railroads — motor vehicles — collision between railway car and motor truck stalled on tracks.

Fowler v. International Ry. Co., 217 App. Div. 537 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the fourth judicial department, entered July 12, 1926, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict in an action to recover for the death of plaintiff’s intestate alleged to have been occasioned through the negligence of defendant. Intestate was killed as the result of a collision between one of defendant’s trolley cars and an automobile which he was driving. Just prior to the accident he was driving westerly on Buffalo avenue in the city of Niagara Falls. When he came to the entrance of Half-way crossing he turned his truck to cross defendant’s tracks. A car was approaching 350 to 500 feet distant at from thirty to thirty-five miles an hour. For some unexplained reason the truck came to a stop directly across the tracks upon which the car was approaching. There is testimony by two witnesses that the truck, after coming to a stop, moved forward a foot or two, and then fell back to its original position. There was evidence from which the jury could find that at this moment the approaching car was distant 350 feet or more; that under the conditions then existing, it could have been stopped within 200 feet; that no warning was given of the approach of the car, and that no effort was made to apply the brakes until

the car was about five feet from the. truck which it hit squarely, pushing it 100 feet before stopping.