Urias v. Pennsylvania R. R.

Citations

• 152 Pa. 326
• 25 A. 566
• 1893 Pa. LEXIS 975

Syllabus

<p>[Marked to be reported.]</p> <p>Negligence — Bailroads—“ Stop, look and listen.” — Evidence.</p> <p>Where there is a doubt as to the proper place to stop, look and listen before crossing a railroad track, the question will as a general rule be referred to the jury; but where there is no such doubt, and it appears that the person injured stopped at a point where he could not see, it is for the court to determine whether the point was a proper place to stop.</p> <p>If a person in approaching a railroad track could have had an unobstructed view of the track for nineteen hundred and fifty feet, if he had stopped and looked at a point eighteen feet from the crossing, and he goes upon the track, and is injui'ed, it is in vain for him to say that he stopped, looked and listened at the point of unobstructed view.</p> <p>Evidence — Positive and negative — Binging of bell — Instructions.</p> <p>Where there is conflicting testimony as to whether a bell was rung or not. before a train approached a grade crossing, the court should pointedly call the attention of the jury to the difference between positive and negative testimony upon a question of this kind.</p> <p>One witness who hears the ringing of a bell is worth more than the testimony of a dozen witnesses who did not hear it, unless in some manner their attention had been especially called to it. The witness who heard the bell either tells the truth, or he tells a deliberate and willful falsehood, while the witness who did not hear the bell may be and is probably truthful. The bell may be rung or the whistle blown without attracting the attention of persons who are familiar with such sounds. Per Paxson, C. J.</p>