Gangawer v. Philadelphia & Reading R. R.

Citations

• 168 Pa. 265
• 32 A. 21
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 788

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Grade crossings — “Stop, look and listen.”</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for the death of plaintiff’s husband killed at a grade crossing, it appeared that at the point where the accident occurred the general direction of the railroad was north and south. There were two tracks, one for the north- and one for the south-bound trains. The deceased, driving in an open two-horse farm wagon, came from the highway traveling eastward, crossed the south-bound track, and was struck by a train bound north on the other track. In approaching the railroad, he stopped at a point about forty feet from the track where a train could be seen coming from either direction for eight hundred or one thousand feet. As this distance diminished on nearing the track the view of the railroad was rapidly extended until at the crossing a train could be seen for more than a third of a mile. The undisputed evidence showed that the deceased could have seen the train which killed him, if he had looked when he was fifteen or twenty feet from the track. Held, that the deceased was guilty of contributory negligence, and that plaintiff was not entitled to recover.</p> <p>In such a case the fact that the deceased stopped, looked and listened at a point forty feet from the railroad, did not exempt him from the charge of contributory negligence, if he drove forty feet to the crossing, with an approaching train in view.</p>