Kansas City-Leavenworth Railroad v. Gallagher

Citations

• 68 Kan. 424
• 75 P. 469
• 64 L.R.A. 344
• 1904 Kan. LEXIS 122

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COUBT.</p> <p>1. StReet-Railway- — Injury to Pedestrian — Inference of Jury* In the absence of evidence to the contrary, a jury may infer from the universal instinct of self-preservation that a person about to cross an electric street-railway track both looked and listened before venturing to do so.</p> <p>2. -Duty of Pedestrian — Ileldtothe Exerciseof Reasonable Care— Question for Jury. It is the duty of a pedestrian upon a city street, who is about to cross the track of an electric-street-railway company, to exercise his faculties of sight and hearing, and in other respects to take ordinary precautions to avoid collision with the cars. If he does look and listen he will be held to an apprehension of that which should have been seen and heard, and if he fails to look and listen he will be charged with the same liability in case of disaster as if he had done so. But a traveler may cross an electric street-railway track in front of an approaching car which he plainly sees and distinctly hears and not be negligent. If, in view of his distance from the car, the rate of speed of its approach, and all other circumstances of the event, a reasonably prudent man would accept the hazard and undertake to cross, a traveler may do so, and the propriety of his conduct is ordinarily a question for the j ury.</p>