Anspach v. Philadelphia & Reading Railway Co.

Citations

• 225 Pa. 528
• 74 A. 373
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 694

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Crossing—“Stop, look and listen” — Ignorance of crossing — Signals—Speed of train.</p> <p>1. Where a man is killed in the darkness of night by a railroad train while driving a wagon across a grade crossing, it cannot be set up as an excuse for his not stopping, looking and listening before going upon the crossing that he was ignorant of the country, and was unaware of the existence of the crossing.</p> <p>2. The negative testimony of witnesses in a grade crossing accident case that they did not hear a whistle blown, or a bell rung is not enough to make out a charge of negligence against the railroad company, as against the positive affirmative testimony of witnesses who did hear the signals, and who were in a position to know.</p> <p>3. In such a case the railroad company cannot be convicted of negligence in running a train at an excessive speed over a country crossing in the nighttime, where the uncontradicted testimony is that the train was not running at a rate of more than twelve miles per hour, and was under such control that it was brought to a standstill at the crossing when not more than half of the train had passed.</p>