Crago v. Pacific Motor Trucking Co.

BRAY, P. J. Plaintiff appeals from a judgment, after jury verdict in favor of defendants, and from the order denying motion for new trial.*

Questions Presented

1. Refusal of instruction on presumption of due care.

2. Effect of giving crosswalk instructions.

Evidence

Plaintiff and her sister were returning to Sacramento from their work at McClellan Air Force Base. They alighted from a bus at a point on highway 40 where there is a bench apparently furnished by the bus company for its passengers. There is no crosswalk marked on the highway. There are three lanes on the highway. Defendant Honeycutt, driving for defendant Pacific Motor Trucking Company, stopped his truck in the lane nearest the two women. The two women testified, and Honeycutt denied, that he waved his hand signalling them to cross the highway in front of his truck. Plaintiff testified that she looked both to the right and left, after the truck stopped, and the highway looked clear. She then saw Honeycutt make a motion for them to cross. Then she started across the road and remembers her sister being on “that side” (towards the direction from which the car which struck plaintiff came) and “after I got struck then I was in the hospital.” She did not remember being hit. She said that she was within 2 feet of the white line of the center lane when struck. Mrs. Mills, the sister, testified that when Honeycutt gave the signal, the two women proceeded to cross the road. They walked side by side about 4 or 5 feet apart, plaintiff being on the side away from the car which struck her. Just as Mrs. Mills got to the end of the first lane she glanced over her left shoulder to see if any ears were coming “and all of a sudden I seen another car coming and it just barely missed me; and that’s when it hit her.” Mrs. Mills stood still and it went past her and struck her sister. Mrs. Mills did not see the vehicle as it struck her sister but only saw her as she started [753]to fall. Plaintiff was thrown to a point in the first lane about 15 feet from the truck. According to Mrs. Mills, the truck was high and quite long and obstructed their view to the north (from which direction the car came).

Honeycutt testified to stopping in the first lane when the women got off the bus. He put out a left hand signal. They walked toward him. He pushed his hat back and waited. He did not wave them across or give them any indication to cross. Apparently he gave a statement to a highway patrol officer in which the word “motion” was included. He said that plaintiff had crossed the white line into the middle lane when she was struck by the right fender of the car.