Robbins v. Illinois Power & Light Corp.

255 Ill. App. 106, 1929 Ill. App. LEXIS 375
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedOctober 23, 1929
DocketGen. No. 8,317
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 255 Ill. App. 106 (Robbins v. Illinois Power & Light Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robbins v. Illinois Power & Light Corp., 255 Ill. App. 106, 1929 Ill. App. LEXIS 375 (Ill. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Shurtleff

delivered the opinion of the court.

Appellee recovered a judgment for the sum of $246.30 against the appellant in the circuit court of Vermilion county as damages to appellee’s motor vehicle, claimed to have been caused in a collision between said vehicle and appellant’s motor bus, growing out of the negligence of appellant’s driver. There were five counts in the declaration, the first count charging general negligence on the part of appellant’s driver and that the motor bus of appellant “then and there ran, struck and collided with great force and violence upon and against the automobile of'plaintiff.” The second count sets out a portion of an ordinance of the City of Danville providing:

“Furthermore, vehicles turning to the left into another street, shall give the right of way to vehicles traveling the street into which the same are turning,” and that appellant’s driver, in violation of the provisions of Said ordinance, negligently and carelessly caused said vehicles to collide, etc., and injured appellee’s machine. The third count is based upon the same ordinance and charges that appellant did wilfully and wantonly turn said motor bus, under his control, with intentional disregard of his duty in that behalf and disregard of the consequences to persons lawfully using the intersection of said streets, to the left from Gilbert Street upon Winter Avenue, at said intersection, etc., without giving appellee the right of way, etc., thereby causing the injury, etc. The first additional count is based upon the statute, providing among other things: that any person operating a motor vehicle at the intersection of highways shall keep to the right of the center of such intersection when turning to the right, and pass to the right of the center of such intersection when turning to the left, and that appellant’s driver carelessly and negligently violated the provisions of this ordinance, thus causing the injury. The second additional count is based upon a further provision of the ordinance that: “Vehicles turning to the left into an intersecting street shall continue beyond the center of the street intersection before turning. The driver must signal with the hand and incline to the left to permit overtaking vehicles to pass on the right,” and that appellant’s driver negligently violated this provision of the ordinance, causing injury, etc.

■ The ordinance contained the provision and definition that a street was that part of a public highway intended for vehicles, and that the term “vehicles” should include motor vehicles. Bach count except the third avers due care and caution on the part of appellee. There was a demurrer to each count of the declaration, which was overruled and a plea of the general issue by appellant.

Gilbert Street in the City ot Danville is an arterial highway, with a 25-foot pavement to a curb, running north and south into Winter Avenue, but does not go through. Winter Avenue is an east and west street with a 24-foot pavement, without curb, which intersects with Gilbert Street. Winter Avenue for about 200 feet west from Gilbert Street was a little down grade. Appellee, with his two brothers, a little before 7 o’clock in the morning, was driving east on Winter Avenue towards Gilbert Street, and appellant’s bus was.proceeding north on Gilbert Street at about the same time. In the southwest corner of the intersection of Winter Avenue and Gilbert Street there is a telephone pole and a fire plug. The pole is four or five feet south of the slab on Winter Avenue, and is about the same distance- west of the paving on Gilbert Street.. Winter Avenue and Gilbert Street are each paved with cement. In the southwest corner of the intersection there are two houses situated about 25 feet from the streets.

The case for appellee is stated as strongly as it can be stated in appellee’s testimony, as follows:. “As to what happened, I came up the Denmark Hill, turned to the -left — there was a little rise there — and when I was about 300 feet west of Gilbert Street, driving east, I saw the bus coming, I saw it before it came in behind the house on the corner, but it wasn’t going at any excessive rate of. speed. Neither was I. I intended • to be going slow enough to stop if necessary. I thought I would stop or get out of the way. The bus was going north on Gilbert Street and I expect it was about 300 feet south of Winter Avenue when I saw it. I saw the bus when it came out upon Winter Avenue. I was on the right hand side of the street, and just as it came out from behind the house, it decreased its speed. It cut over about 25 feet south of Winter Avenue. The windows were frosted with ice and it was very cold that morning. I intended to stop at Gilbert Street, or intended to be going slow enough to have the car under control. The bus came out of Gilbert Street and pulled directly across the pavement on the west side of Gilbert Street. There was only one thing to do, and that was put on the brakes. I put on the brakes and the front end of the car did not collide with the bus but the back end did. There was a little ice there. After the collision a window was broken. The bus was going north on Gilbert Street, and then turned to the left, facing to the- northwest. I know where the intersection of those two streets was. The bus when it turned and came upon Winter Avenue was west of the intersection of the two streets. I haven’t measured the width of the bus but I would judge it was about nine feet wide, and it is about twenty feet long and about eight feet high. When the bus came over on the west side or left to the center, it stopped with the front end of the bus past the west side of the center line about ten feet. It stopped before I hit into it. When the bus stopped and I hit it, the rear end of the bus or both back wheels were south of the center line of Winter Avenue. When the collision occurred the rear end of the bus was about four feet north of the south line of the Winter Avenue pavement. I have ridden on trains and driven automobiles, and have a judgment as to rate of speed. When the bus turned off Gilbert Street upon Winter Avenue, my judgment would be it was going fifteen miles per hour, and before that I was going at a speed of about between ten and fifteen miles an hour. When the bus stopped, I wasn’t ten feet from it.

“My car was equipped with brakes, and they were in good working order and worked that morning. I put on the brakes and it was icy and threw the car sideways. The front end of my car never touched the bus. It was the side of both vehicles that collided. The headlights in front were not damaged. When I put on the brakes, the rear end of my car turned to the north. I saw that all avenues of escape were closed and my car collided with the bus. There was a fire plug about five or six feét south of the telephone pole that I have spoken of and when I put on the brake, the telephone pole was about ten feet from the front end of our car to the southeast. When I put on the brakes I tried to turn down Gilbert Street behind the bus. There was a space of five or six feet between the rear end of the bus and the curb on the west side of Gilbert Street and it was not enough space to go through.

“The collision did not have any effect on the bus. I rode the bus down town. When my car hit the bus, both vehicles slid two or three feet and the bus slid east and a' little back north, and then the bus stopped, and I got out. It was a big yellow bus with windows in the upper half and the operator in front on the left side. There were windows entirely around the front.

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Bluebook (online)
255 Ill. App. 106, 1929 Ill. App. LEXIS 375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robbins-v-illinois-power-light-corp-illappct-1929.