Norman v. Tully

MUSSELL, J.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff in an accident which occurred on June 11, 1954, at about 10:30 p. m., at a point approximately one-half mile north of Grapevine Station on United States Highway 99, and involved three northbound truck and trailer combinations. United States Highway 99, at the point of collision, is a four lane asphaltic concrete highway and is divided by a concrete and steel barrier. This part of the highway is known as the “Grapevine grade,” which is 6 miles long and has a 6 per cent downgrade for northbound traffic.

Plaintiff Henry C. Norman was driving a truck and trailer north, towards Bakersfield. He was traveling approximately 18 miles per hour and overtook a truck and trailer which was being driven northward at a speed of about 12 miles per hour. Norman decided to turn into the inner traffic lane to pass this truck and trailer. He looked in his mirror to see if anything was behind him and to see if it was clear. There were no vehicles visible to his rear and he then put out his arm signal and pulled out to pass the other truck. When he was pulling around it, and the two cabs were about even, his equipment was struck from the rear by a tractor truck and trailer owned by defendant Tully, then being driven by defendant

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Clawson. The Tully tractor and trailer, at the time of the accident, was traveling between 50 and 60 miles per hour. It was loaded with cantaloupes and oranges and the equipment, in all, weighed about 72,000 pounds.

Clawson told an investigating highway patrol officer that he was driving north at about 30 miles per hour on the Grapevine when his brakes became hot and “faded out on him” and he told plaintiff at the scene of the accident he “didn’t know the hill or guessed he came off too fast.” Both defendants testified that the brakes on their equipment had faded out and would no longer stop the truck and trailer some time before they passed the Grapevine Station, and that they traveled from three and one-half to four miles after the brakes failed, before the accident.

Officer Donald Barr, of the California Highway Patrol, testified that he had been stationed at Lebec on the Grapevine grade for three years and patroled the grade daily; that he had observed many trucks going down the grade and had investigated numerous accidents where trucks went out of control; that from time to time he had followed trucks going down the grade and out of control; that the grade is one of the most dangerous in California; that there are two signs posted along the highway where the Grapevine starts that state “that it is a six per cent downgrade and trucks use low gears”; that these signs are approximately 4 feet high and 8 feet wide and the lettering thereon is reflectorized so they will be picked up very clearly by lights at night; that the barrier dividing the north and southbound traffic lanes is constructed of steel and concrete; that it is rounded so that a truck or car can rub the barrier without going over it into the other lane and it is engineered so that it will throw them back into the traffic lane; that it will stop a truck or car at certain speeds and that he had seen trucks stop by deliberately using this barrier, and in one instance had observed a truck, traveling 30 miles per hour, which stopped by using the barrier ; that the barrier has many black marks caused by trucks using it to stop; that he had discussed with truckers, and had made a study, as to what speeds were safe on that particular grade; that he had investigated many accidents on it and stated that in his opinion “20 miles per hour, on a loaded truck, is as fast as the hill should be negotiated. ’ ’