Bush v. Philadelphia & Reading Railway Co.

Citations

• 232 Pa. 327
• 81 A. 409
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 720

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Automobiles—“ Stop, look and listen ” — Contributory negligence.</p> <p>1. In determining the question of the contributory negligence of a person crossing railroad tracks, though the mere act of stopping does not of itself show that he stopped at a proper place, or that there was not another and better place where he should have stopped again, or that his duty of looking and listening was performed with the proper care and attention, yet stopping is opposed to the idea of negligence, and unless, notwithstanding the stop, the whole evidence shows negligence so clear that no other inference can properly be drawn from it, the court cannot draw that inference as a conclusion of law, but must send the ease to the jury.</p> <p>2. In an action to recover damages for the wrecking of an automobile by a railroad train in a collision at nighttime upon a public crossing on a borough street where the driver of the automobile testifies that he stopped his machine and looked and listened about nine feet from the first track, and it is admitted that before reaching this point he had passed no place where he could have had a view of an approaching train, the questions whether he stopped a sufficient length of time to inform himself of conditions, and whether he advanced with due caution from that point, are to be determined, not by'hard and fast rules of positive duty applicable in all cases, but by the jury upon a consideration of all the circumstances in the case.</p>