Howard v. Commonwealth

46 Pa. D. & C.3d 520, 1986 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 59
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Crawford County
DecidedJuly 26, 1986
Docketno. 1985-23
StatusPublished

This text of 46 Pa. D. & C.3d 520 (Howard v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Crawford County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Howard v. Commonwealth, 46 Pa. D. & C.3d 520, 1986 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 59 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1986).

Opinion

THOMAS, P.J.,

This was a jury trial involving an intersection automobile accident with a vehicle driven by Jeffrey M. Howard and a Pennsylvania State Police automobile, driven by Sanford Porter. The accident occured about 7:50 a.m. on August 31, 1984, when the state police vehicle went through a stop sign on a rural route and struck plaintiff’s vehicle as it was proceeding south on a main two-lane highway designated as Pennsylvania Route 8. The jury awarded substantial damages to plaintiff husband, and defendant filed post-trial motiohs contending there were four reasons why the court should have granted a compulsory nonsuit or directed verdict and nine major errors by the court which singularly or' collectively reqfiire the grant of a new trial.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

We adopt, with some modification, plaintiffs’ statement of facts as contained in their post-trial argument brief as being an accurate representation of the pertinent facts surrounding the accident viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict winner. At about 7:50 a.m. on the Friday of the 1984 Labor Day weekend, Trooper Sanford R. Porter was driving a Commonwealth state police vehicle eastwardly along Canadohta Lake Road, also known as Pennsylvania Legislative Route 20084. Porter’s vehicle was the lead car in a caravan of three state police [522]*522vehicles on their way to a special emergency assignment in Warren, Pa. Although he was unfamiliar with the road, Porter set the pace for the other officers. The unfamiliar road was winding and rolling, and Porter encountered patches of fog the farther east he went. At the same time the sun was rising in the east and, although he encountered the sunlight as soon as he turned east onto Canadohta Lake Road, the farther he went, the more the sun became a problem as he headed directly into it. He testified that he had to pay more attention to staying on the road than to looking for road signs. Porter admitted that his maximum visibility was only 50-100 feet and that he could never see more than 100 feet ahead in the constant fog. He also acknowledged that his speed was betwefen 40 and 60 m.p.h. all along the way and that he was unaware of the posted 45 m.p.h. speed limit because he never saw any of the speed limit signs.

Although the officers were on their way to assist in a manhunt, they were not actually in pursuit of the fugitives. Porter was in a marked police cruiser equipped with a strobe light and a siren. Although he knew that he was required to use a siren in order to go through a stop sign or exceed the speed limit, he was not using his siren along Canadohta Lake Road or at any time as he approached the intersection with Route 8.

Not only did Porter fail to see the several posted speed limit signs, he also failed to see signs along the road signalling the presence of the intersection of Route 8, which was marked with a stop sign. There was also a standard “Stop Sign, Ahead” warning sign posted in clear view 340 feet ahead of the stop sign. Porter claimed to have seen what he believes to have been the stop sign as á “glimmer of red” at almost the same time he saw Jeffrey [523]*523Howard’s pickup truck in front of him in the intersection and applied his brakes. He testified that it was “almost an instantaneous thing” between the time he saw the red and applied his brakes and the time he saw plaintiff’s vehicle directly ahead of him and already in the intersection.

The investigating officer who measured the 164 feet of skidmarks left by Porter’s vehicle up to the point of impact in the center of the intersection estimated Porter’s speed to have been 55 m.p.h., 10 miles over the posted limit. The commonwealth never denied these facts.

Porter knew that both Route 8 and a stop sign were somewhere ahead on the unfamiliar road. During a radio conversation with one of his companions right before the collision, he said that Route 8 was somewhere up ahead, but he claimed not to know precisely where it was. Porter did acknowledge that he could have radioed the police barracks to determine the location of the intersection, but that he failed to do so. He testified that he went through the stop sign because he didn’t know the intersection was there. He attempted to justify his ignorance of the terrain, the intersection, the warning sign and the stop sign by relying on his increasingly obscured vision because of the patches of fog and the increasing intensity of the rising sun. He never slowed down, however.

Significantly, Trooper David Lash, the driver of the third car in the caravan, saw the warning and stop signs and stopped his car at the intersection. He slowed down because of the rough road and the sun. It was argued to the jury that Porter could and should have done the same thing. Instead, he sped through the stop sign and hit plaintiffs truck broadside.

While the area of the accident was in a rural area, [524]*524that area was a resort area and there were numerous homes, stores, a church, small shops and an amusement park along the route immediately before the intersection.

Trooper Porter was aware of the statutory mandate requiring emergency vehicles to use audible signals (sirens) when exceeding the speed limit or going through stop signs and the provision that no emergency privilege relieves an officer of the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons. In fact, he identified plaintiffs exhibit 26 as the written rules governing his conduct. In spite of Porter’s testimony and the clear statutory mandate, the commonwealth sought to prove an unwritten custom among state police officers to disregard the language of section 3105. The trial court ruled that Porter could not testify to any such policy to leave the use of the siren to a speeding officer’s discretion when approaching a stop sign.

Plaintiff Jeffrey Howard was on the way from his work at General Electric in Erie to his home along Route 8. The speed limit on Route 8 was 55 m.p.h., and Howard was traveling at 45-50 m.p.h. Traffic was very light. The weather was nice and sunny, although he had slowed down and had his light on because of a few small patches of fog along another road which he had traveled earlier. He had no recollection of anything after passing a landmark about a quarter-mile mile ahead of the intersection. His first memories after impact are of pain, blood on his face, glass on his body, the fear involved in not being able to move and the fear of being permanently paralyzed. According to his treating physician, he lost a portion of his memory as a result of the trauma.1

[525]*525Howard sustained fractures of his sixth cervical vertebra, his first lumbar vertebra and his right hip, in addition to lesser injuries. He was bedridden for two months, wore a back brace and used a walker, went through various regimens of physical therapy and ultrasound treatment, and continues to take medication for ongoing pain. After finally returning to work in December of 1985, he found the job he had been doing for more than 11 years physically difficult and painful. His lowered efficiency resulted in a reduced take-home pay and lost valuable seniority and pension time.

The jury awarded plaintiff husband total damages of $266,700, broken down into separate items listed on the verdict slip in accord with the court’s charge on damages as follows:

Lost wages to date of trial $36,000
Lost future earning capacity 75,000

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Bluebook (online)
46 Pa. D. & C.3d 520, 1986 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howard-v-commonwealth-pactcomplcrawfo-1986.