Mills v. Dunn Bros.

503 P.2d 1250, 264 Or. 156, 1972 Ore. LEXIS 356
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 7, 1972
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 503 P.2d 1250 (Mills v. Dunn Bros.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mills v. Dunn Bros., 503 P.2d 1250, 264 Or. 156, 1972 Ore. LEXIS 356 (Or. 1972).

Opinion

HOLMAN, J.

This action presents an unusual situation. A fireman of a railroad locomotive seeks damages from the owner of a truck for personal injuries received in an intersection collision between the locomotive and [158]*158the truck. Plaintiff appeals from a judgment entered on a jury verdict for defendant.

Plaintiff contends the trial court should have instructed the jury that defendant’s driver was negligent and that such negligence was a cause of the accident. No claim of contributory .negligence is made .by defendant against plaintiff. As a result of plaintiff?s contention, it is necessary to recapitulate the évidence, remembering that, because of defendant’s verdict, the evidence must be interpreted in a manner most favorable to defendant. . '

Defendant’s driver was operating a large truck loaded with natural gas transmission pipe. The loaded truck was approximately 70 feet in length. At the time of the accident, it had .just left the El Paso Pipe Yard, which is situated on Mather Road in Clackamas County, a short distance east- of where Mather' Road crosses.the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks., Mather Road runs approximately east and west and crosses the tracks at a right angle. There are four tracks. From the east, the direction from which defendant’s truck was coming, there are a spur track, a drill track, a siding or passing track, and the main line. On the east side of the tracks there is a cross buck with a stop sign on it. The cross buck and stop sign are 54 feet from the east rail of the main line, the other three tracks lying between those two points.

At the time of the accident, the spur and drill tracks were unoccupied, but the passing track was occupied south of the intersection with Mather Road by a southbound freight train called the Canby Local, which was awaiting the arrival of a northbound freight train from Eugene on the main line. The rear of the caboose of the Canby Local was 226 feet south of the [159]*159intersection. From the stop sign on the east side of the tracks, the view of the main line to the south past a point approximately 300 feet from the intersection was blocked out by the Canby Local.

Defendant’s driver, traveling west, stopped at the stop sign before crossing the tracks. He looked to the south, saw no approaching train, and started to cross the tracks in the next-to-the-lowest of the truck’s ten forward gears at a speed of from three to five miles per hour while he continued looking to the south. About the time the front of his truck was at the main line, he saw the Eugene freight approaching, and he pushed down on the throttle in an attempt to •clear the tracks. The truck’s maximum speed in its next-to-the-lowest gear was five miles per hour. The train was traveling at what defendant’s driver said was a “terrible speed.” The operator of the train said it was going 55 miles per hour. The-speed limit for the train at that point wras 65 miles per hour. The train did not blow its whistle until about the time it passed the caboose of the Canby Local. The engineer testified he could not see defendant’s truck until his view cleared the caboose of the Canby Local and, at that time, the front of the track was at the second track west of the stop sign. A deputy sheriff who investigated the accident testified a driver could not see down the main line past the caboose of the Canby Local until he was on the same line on which the Canby Local stood, which is the track next to the main line. The two tracks are only nine feet apart. It is apparent from the photographs that defendant’s driver could see beyond the caboose before the front of his truck was at the main line. However, a farther view of. the main line was obstructed by a curve in the track at a point not too far south of the caboose of [160]*160the Canby Local. The train collided with the rear of defendant’s truck.

It is our view that under the circumstances related the jury could properly have found that the driver of defendant’s truck was not negligent. At 55 miles per hour, the train would be traveling approximately 80 feet a second. At four miles per hour the truck would be traveling approximately six feet per second. From the time the front of defendant’s truck was at the main line until it cleared the crossing, approximately twelve seconds would elapse, during which time the train would be traveling between 950 and 1,000 feet. The jury could have found that defendant’s driver could not be reasonably expected to have known of the presence of the train until the front of his truck closely approached the main line and he was thereby trapped. The driver of defendant’s truck was from out of state and was not shown to have had any familiarity with the crossing or with the relative use of the tracks except that which he could have ascertained from crossing the tracks from the opposite direction that morning.

The argument of plaintiff seems to proceed upon the theory that the crossing was found by the trial judge not to be extrahazardous, and, therefore, it must be inferred from the happening of the accident that defendant’s driver was negligent. His reasoning seems to be that by definition an extrahazardous crossing is one which is so dangerous that a reasonably prudent motorist cannot safely use it unless measures are taken by the railroad which are in excess of those usually used by it to warn motorists

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Related

Sargent v. Southern Pacific Transportation Co.
504 P.2d 729 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
503 P.2d 1250, 264 Or. 156, 1972 Ore. LEXIS 356, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mills-v-dunn-bros-or-1972.