Black v. Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad

Citations

• 216 Pa. 173
• 65 A. 405
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 776

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Overhead crossings — Duties as to signals.</p> <p>A railroad company is not bound by any unbending rule of law to ring a bell or blow a whistle as a train approaches an overhead crossing. Penna. Railroad Co. v. Barnett, 59 Pa. 259, distinguished.</p> <p>When the risks and dangers of crossing at grade have been avoided by the construction of an overhead crossing at the expenditure of a large sum of money, it would be unreasonable to make an imperative unbending rule requiring the performance of duties demanded as a protection where the danger is greater, as at a grade crossing.</p> <p>Where a traveler approaching an overhead crossing has a clear view of the railroad for a distance of nearly 1,500 feet in the direction from which a train is coming, the railroad company is under no imperative duty to him to signal the approach of the train by blowing a whistle, or ringing a bell.</p> <p>Negligence — Contributory negligence — Railroads.</p> <p>In an accident case, if the testimony does not disclose negligence on the part of the defendant, there can be no recovery ordinarily, no matter how-free from negligefl.ee the facts show the plaintiff to be.</p>