Heroux v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co.

McCOMB, J. Defendants appeal from a judgment in favor of plaintiff after trial before a jury in an action to recover damages for personal injuries suffered in a collision between an automobile and locomotive.

(See illustration [page 403] for the photograph of the scene where the accident hereinafter described occurred.)

Viewing the evidence most favorable to plaintiff (respondent) the material facts are:

January 3, 1937, about 3 A. M., defendant corporation was operating a steam train with defendant Alverson as engineer. This train, which consisted of a locomotive and tender, two box cars and a caboose, was moving about 25 miles per hour in a northerly direction on the track just south of the point where the right of way crosses L Street in the Wilmington district of the city of Los Angeles. L Street at this point runs east and west.

The house just west of Hyatt Street and south of L Street, which is marked A in the above picture, is 205 feet west of the center of the railroad tracks of the defendant Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, which run north and south along a line indicated by the figures 1 and 2.

It is 181½ feet from the south curb line of L Street to the house marked B in the above picture. All of the fences and other structures between the south curb line of L Street and the house marked B are located east of the railroad tracks. There is a standard cross-arm railroad sign located at the point marked 1, which is 13 feet east of the center line of the railroad tracks. This cross-arm sign is approximately 12 feet high and the cross-arms are approximately 8 feet long con[404]sisting of boards 1 inch by 6 inches in size with the letters in the sign “railroad crossing” about 6 inches in size. The locomotive being operated by defendants was equipped with:

[403]

[404]