Fraser v. Stellinger

[565]

STURTEVANT, J.

The defendants in the above entitled action have appealed from a judgment awarding damages to the plaintiff for injuries sustained in an automobile collision.

At about five o’clock in the afternoon of the 24th day of September, 1940, plaintiff was riding and operating a bicycle in a general northerly direction on the Bayshore Highway about one mile north of Redwood City. The highway in that neighborhood is broad. It is divided into four lanes. A double white stripe is marked down the middle. Each side is divided into two lanes that are separated by a single white stripe. Each lane is 10 feet wide. The lanes adjacent to the middle are known as the fast lanes and the outside ones are known as the slow lanes., The plaintiff was propelling his bicycle along the shoulder on the east side of the highway. He that he was traveling along a line approximately 2 feet from the easterly border of the highway. He also testified he did not turn off the shoulder. The defendant Preston was driving a 5-ton motor truck in the same direction. He approached from the south and was traveling north to his home in San Francisco. As he proceeded north he testified that he was traveling in about the middle of the slow lane. At the time of the accident he was traveling in his judgment 35 to 40 miles per hour. As he drove north he saw the plaintiff riding the bicycle about 1,000 feet ahead. Stellinger continued to drive forward and when about 50 feet behind the plaintiff he sounded the electric horn on his truck. The did not indicate that he heard the horn. He testified that he did not hear it. He also testified he was hit from the rear. Stellinger continued forward and when he was 2, 3, 4, or 5 feet to the rear of the bicycle he testified the plaintiff swerved the bicycle across the path of the truck. Stellinger testified that when he saw the movement he swerved his truck toward the middle line of the highway but his right fender hit the side of the bicycle obliquely. Both the plaintiff and the Stellinger testified that the north end of the easterly lanes were unoccupied at the time and neither saw any vehicle ahead nor any vehicle approaching from the rear. No other witnesses saw the accident at the time of the impact. The collision occurred in such a manner and with such force that the bicycle on which the plaintiff was riding was knocked to the right a distance of about 20 feet. The plaintiff was thrown north and to the right and landed in the field on the east side of the highway. When picked up be was 15 to 20 feet east of