Blanchard v. Norton

MARKS, J. This is an appeal from a judgment against defendants for injuries received in a collision between an automobile being driven south on Highway 99 by plaintiff and one belonging to defendants and being driven by W. L. Norton from the east to the west side of the highway to enter a private driveway into the Hansen Auto Court. The accident happened about, nine o’clock on the morning of November 24, 1939. The roadway was dry and visibility good.

At the point of the accident, Highway 99 consisted of a paved three-lane road with wide oil macadam shoulders on both sides. Just north of the driveway into the Hansen Auto Court there was a twenty-five-mile speed sign, facing north, on the west side of the highway. The evidence shows that for a distance of one-quarter of a mile south of this sign there were only nine buildings on the west side of the highway that came within the limitations provided in section 90.1 of the Vehicle Code. There were no structures on the east side of the highway.

Plaintiff testified that at the time of the accident he was driving his automobile south , in the west traffic lane of the highway at a speed of between 40 and 50 miles per hour; that he kept a lookout for vehicles ahead of him; that he saw the Norton automobile when it was between one and two thousand feet from him; that it was traveling north with its right wheels on the edge of the east macadam shoulder and its left wheels in the east traffic lane; that when Norton was about opposite the driveway, and between one hundred twenty-five and one hundred fifty feet distant from the Blanchard car, he turned sharply to his left, heading toward the auto court driveway and proceeded on his course across the highway directly in the path of the oncoming car; that when Blanchard saw this movement he applied his brakes and swerved his car to his right; that the left front of his car came into collision with the right front of the Norton car; that at the time of the collision the Norton car was headed west with its front wheels on the west macadam shoulder and its rear wheels in the west traffic lane. Plaintiff further testified that he continually observed the Norton car as it proceeded north and turned west across the highway; that Norton gave no arm signal indicating his intention to make the turn.

This evidence is contradicted in but two particulars. Norton testified he gave an arm signal before making the turn, [733]and a witness estimated the speed of plaintiff’s car at between fifty and fifty-five miles an hour at a point about five hundred feet north of the place of the collision.