Opinion ID: 2402987
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the trial court erred in submitting the whistle and bell issue to the jury.

Text: The engineer testified that he started sounding the whistle and bell when he was some fourteen to fifteen hundred feet from the intersection. He stated that he knew that he did so for at least thirteen hundred and twenty feet, which he knew was a quarter of a mile. Two independent witnesses testified that they heard the train whistle sounding before the occurrence. One of these witnesses never saw the train but the other witness witnessed the actual impact. This witness said the train whistle sounded while he was watching the pickup and when he looked toward the train it was about two hundred and fifty feet from the intersection. There was no testimony or evidence introduced to indicate that the whistle or bell did not sound. We recently decided a similar case in Missouri Pacific Railroad Company v. Biddle, 293 Ark. 142, 737 S.W.2d 625 (1987) (Opinion on rehearing). In Biddle we held that in the absence of any evidence that the bell was not sounded the matter should not have been presented to the jury. Since the trial court presented the issue to the jury, we reversed and dismissed because there was no other issue remaining. The testimony of the engineer and the witnesses in the present case was not contradicted. Therefore, it was error to present this matter to the jury. We held it was error to give an inapplicable instruction in Hunter v. McDaniel, 274 Ark. 178, 623 S.W.2d 196 (1981), and CRT, Inc. v. Dunn, 248 Ark. 197, 451 S.W.2d 215 (1970). Since the jury may have found that the train did not ring the bell or sound the whistle, thereby establishing proximate cause, we find prejudicial error.