Begley v. State

162 S.W.3d 535, 2004 Tenn. App. LEXIS 647, 2004 WL 2254019
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 7, 2004
DocketE2004-00202-COA-R3-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 162 S.W.3d 535 (Begley v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Begley v. State, 162 S.W.3d 535, 2004 Tenn. App. LEXIS 647, 2004 WL 2254019 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinions

OPINION

D. MICHAEL SWINEY, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court,

in which SHARON G. LEE, J„ joined. HERSCHEL P. FRANKS, P.J., filed a separate dissenting opinion.

In May of 2000, a car being driven eastbound on Interstate 40 (“1-40”) in Knox County by Jeremy Roark left the travel lane and crossed the rumble strips onto the inside shoulder of the road where it collided with a Tennessee Department of Transportation (“TDOT”) truck parked during routine litter pick-up. Mr. Roark was killed in the accident and the TDOT employee operating the truck that day, Kenneth Siler, was injured. Susan Beg-ley, Mr. Roark’s mother (“Plaintiff’), brought suit against the State of Tennessee. The case was transferred to the Claims Commission (“the Commission”) and was tried. The Commission held, inter alia, that a reasonable person standard applied and that it was not reasonable for the TDOT truck to be parked on the shoulder. The Commission assessed 45% of the fault for the accident to Mr. Roark and 55% to the State and awarded Plaintiff a judgment for $300,000. The State appeals claiming the Commission lacked jurisdiction, there was insufficient evidence that each element of the negligence cause of action had been met, and there was insufficient evidence to support a finding that Mr. Roark was less than 50% at fault. We affirm.

Background

Plaintiff sued the State of Tennessee after her twenty-year old. son, Jeremy Roark, was killed in an accident involving a TDOT truck. The ease was transferred to the Claims Commission pursuant to Tenn.Code Ann. § 9-8-402(e) and was tried in October of 2003.

On the day of the accident, May 31, 2000, at approximately 11:30 a.m., Mr. Roark was driving eastbound on 1-40 returning home after taking the necessary physical exam to join the Air Force. The day was sunny and clear, and it had not rained recently. The evidence showed Mr. Roark was in good health, was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol, and was not tired. At the site of the accident, there are three lanes of travel eastbound, an emergency lane on each side, and a [537]*537grassy median area. Traffic at the time was described as heavy.

A witness to the accident, Alan E. McFarland, II, testified at trial. He stated he and his wife were in a car traveling behind Mr. Roark’s car. He testified there were two packs of vehicles and that his car was “in one pack approaching the pack that Jeremy was in.” Mr. McFarland testified he was driving approximately 75 miles per hour and was gaining on Mr. Roark’s car. At that time, Mr. Roark’s car was in the center lane of the three lane eastbound highway. Mr. McFarland testified that Mr. Roark was not speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, tailgating, or driving erratically. Mr. McFarland noticed a tractor trailer ahead of Mr. Roark’s car put on its brake lights and then saw Mr. Roark move into the far left lane of travel. Mr. McFarland testified that it was safe for Mr. Roark to change lanes when he did so. As Mr. McFarland described it, Mr. Roark in changing lanes “went a little further and that’s when, when I noticed the TDOT truck and, and then, you know, the, the accident after.” When questioned, Mi'. McFarland stated it looked to him like the right side of the TDOT truck was “right by the rumble strips.” He also testified the TDOT truck was parked entirely on the shoulder and not on the grass median.

Richard Fitzgerald, Plaintiffs trial expert, is a consultant performing traffic accident investigation and reconstruction work. Mr. Fitzgerald reconstructed the accident and testified at trial that Mr. Roark’s departure from the travel lanes onto the shoulder does not appear to have been based on any problem with environmental or roadway conditions. Mr. Fitzgerald explained that the left front portion of Mr. Roark’s car hit the right rear portion of the bed of the truck, went underneath the truck, and hit the wheels on the right side. Police measurements of a skid mark left by the left front tire of Mr. Roark’s car show that the car was at least four feet ten inches off the travel lane and onto the shoulder at the beginning of the skid and four feet two inches off at the time of impact. Mr. Fitzgerald explained that the skid mark shows Mr. Roark had steered to the right as the right tires of his car were headed toward the yellow fine, back toward the travel lane. Mr. Fitzgerald explained that the skid mark is relatively straight, which means Mr. Roark “took collision avoidance action by braking hard enough at least to lock up one tire” and means the car was tracking normally not fishtailing or out of control. Mr. Fitzgerald stated:

[T]here’s no indication that the vehicle was either yawing or fishtailing. There’s no indication that it was not under control at the time the brake application occurred. When you lock up your brakes and you lock up all the tires, you’ve got no steering. You’re riding as a passenger. So at that time the vehicle becomes out of your control. It’s going to go whichever way it was headed....

At impact, the TDOT truck was pushed from the shoulder entirely on to the grass median.

Kenneth Siler, the TDOT truck operator, is employed by the State of Tennessee working for TDOT and has worked for about eight years as a Highway Worker I. His duties include driving up and down I-40 in Knox County picking up debris on and near the road. Mr. Siler received on-the-job training by accompanying older employees on the job at first, but received no formal instruction on litter pick-up. Ordinarily, Mr. Siler works with another Highway I worker, but he was working alone on the day of the accident. Mr. Siler explained that usually one worker drives [538]*538the truck and the other looks for debris and traffic hazards like “pieces of metal, aluminum ladders falling off of trucks and gators”, which are the remnants of tires. Mr. Siler stated he never knows when he may need to stop. It depends on what debris the workers find as they ride the roads.

On the morning of the accident, Mr. Siler traveled west on 1-40 and then broke for lunch around 11:00 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. After lunch, he started eastbound. He stopped at the site where the accident occurred to pick up a piece of a tire located on the grass median separating the eastbound from the westbound traffic. Mr. Siler testified that the traffic was “real heavy” and the vehicles were traveling around 70 miles per hour at this location. He also admitted that real heavy traffic like this heightened his concerns because of the risk of danger. Mr. Siler explained that as he was lifting the “gator” to throw it into the truck, he heard a noise and then was pushed. He stated he was parked for only a few seconds before the accident happened.

Mr. Siler testified he remembers parking his truck half in the grass median and half on the emergency lane or shoulder. He stated he always gets over in the grass if possible. Mr. Siler testified that at the accident site, the grass median is wide and on that day was dry. The TROT truck he was driving had a bed width of approximately eight feet. The width of the shoulder is approximately ten and a half feet. If the TDOT truck were parked as Mr. Siler remembers, it would have been sticking four feet into the shoulder leaving approximately six and a half feet between the right side of his truck and the nearest travel lane.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
162 S.W.3d 535, 2004 Tenn. App. LEXIS 647, 2004 WL 2254019, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/begley-v-state-tennctapp-2004.