Gasser v. Philadelphia & Reading Railway Co.

Citations

• 266 Pa. 493
• 109 A. 760
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 596

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Grade crossing — Stop, looh and listen— Contributory negligence — Nonsuit.</p> <p>1. One approaching a railroad is not only required to stop, look and listen, but to keep a due observation, from the stopping point on, till the crossing is made.</p> <p>2. It is vain for any one to assert a driver looked and listened, if, in spite of what his eyes and ears must have told him, he drove directly in front of a moving locomotive.</p> <p>3. When a driver stops at a place where he cannot get a good view of the railroad he is about to cross, from the vehicle in which he is riding, he must get out and walk to a Spot where he can secure ¡3uch view, and his failure to do so constitutes contributory negligence in law, for stopping where an approaching train cannot be seen is not an observance of the duty to stop, look and listen.</p> <p>4. In an action against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries and for injuries to a one-horse buggy sustained by a collision with a train at a public highway grade crossing, a nonsuit is properly entered, where the evidence for plaintiff shows that in broad daylight he approached from the east the crossing where there were two tracks; that he was familiar with the crossing; that he stopped at a point about twenty feet from the first track where a box-ear standing on a siding to the north somewhat obscured his view in that direction; that a freight train was passing on the first or northbound track; that he stopped and waited until this train had gone by, and then started, and without doing anything else, drove on to the crossing; that his buggy was, struck almost immediately on entering the second or southbound! track by a locomotive hauling a train of 35 freight cars; that the train which caused the accident was running at the rate of 25 to 30 miles an hour, could have been heard 1,100 feet from the crossing, and seen, according to plaintiff’s testimony 340 feet from where he stopped, and according