Hansen v. Steele

YORK, P. J. This appeal from a judgment in favor of the respondents is presented to this court upon a bill of exceptions, from which it appears that appellants seek damages for injuries sustained by Elvera Hansen when she collided with a truck owned by respondent corporations, which was being operated by respondent Steele. The accident occurred at 5:45 o’clock in the afternoon of October 31, 1936, near the northeast corner of the intersection of Atlantic Boulevard and Sixtieth Street in the county of Los Angeles. Said boulevard is a public highway seventy feet in width running in a general northerly and southerly direction, the easterly half thereof being divided into three traffic lanes.

At the time in question, one Ray Mailhoit was driving his car south on Atlantic Boulevard and at its intersection with Sixtieth Street he made a “U” turn into the second lane of traffic on the east side of Atlantic and proceeded to the north. When the rear of his automobile was “about to leave” the northerly edge of an unmarked crosswalk on the northeast corner of the intersection, he saw Mrs. Hansen step into the street, whereupon he “hesitated” and brought his car “to practically a dead stop”, allowing her to pass in front of him at a distance of about four feet, and then continued on his way.

[3]In the meanwhile, respondent Steele, driving respondents’ truck at a speed of from 20 to 25 miles per hour, was approaching the said intersection from the south in the first lane of traffic on the right or extreme east side of Atlantic Boulevard. Just before reaching Sixtieth Street, he slowed down to 10 or 15 miles per hour to allow another car to pass him. (Presumably this was the car driven by Ray Mailhoit which was completing its “U” turn into the boulevard.) Respondent Steele proceeded into the intersection and swerved his truck to the northwest into the third lane of traffic, passing to the left of the Mailhoit ear which was traveling in the second or middle lane. The car and truck moved along together for a moment, and as the truck came abreast of the said car, respondent Steele observed Mrs. Hansen for the first time when she was about two feet away from the right side of his truck. Said Steele testified that Mrs. Hansen came from in front of the Mailhoit ear; that she was “going plenty fast”, and was struck by the right front fender of his truck; that the accident occurred about 35 feet north of the north sidewalk line of Sixtieth Street.

The witness Kime, who was driving northerly in the first traffic lane on the east side of Atlantic south of its intersection with Sixtieth Street, testified that he saw Mrs. Hansen start to cross the boulevard from east to west at a point about twenty feet north of the northerly curb line of Sixtieth Street; that the truck was traveling in the third lane of traffic near the center of the boulevard, and the Mailhoit car was in the second or middle lane; that the car and the truck traveled abreast for about fifteen feet, with a space of three or four feet intervening between the truck and the place where Mrs. Hansen passed in front of the Mailhoit car which had “stopped or hesitated, I wouldn’t say which”. He-testified that Mrs. Hansen fell down in the spot where she was hit by the truck; that she was not dragged, and that he helped to pick her up at a point fifteen or twenty feet north of the north curb line of Sixtieth Street.