Opinion ID: 1609015
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: factual and procedural

Text: Ford, an employee of the city of Kimball, Nebraska, was struck by Clinton's truck and injured while working on a water main at approximately 4 a.m. on August 7, 1997. Ford and his coworkers were working to repair a leaking water main on Third Street in Kimball. Third Street is a three-lane street at the point of the accident: one lane for eastbound traffic, one lane for westbound traffic, and a center turn lane. Ford had parked his vehicle, a pickup truck belonging to the city of Kimball, facing west in the eastbound lane. All the lights on the vehicle were on: the headlights, hazard lights, and flashing strobe light. No other barricades or signs were placed on the street, and Ford was not wearing reflective clothing. Clinton's truck approached the scene traveling eastbound, and Clinton attempted to pass Ford's truck by driving on the side of the road to the right. Ford, who was working in the road near the front of his truck, was struck and injured by Clinton's truck. It should be noted that before Ford filed suit, Clinton was murdered, see State v. Redmond, 262 Neb. 411, 631 N.W.2d 501 (2001), and did not testify by deposition or at trial. Westfall testified for the defense as an accident reconstruction expert. Westfall had received a management degree from Bellevue University, was a certified Iowa police officer, and had over 1,000 hours of accident-related training, including training and certification as an accident reconstructionist. Westfall testified, generally, that he attempted to re-create the scene of the accident by placing a pickup truck similar to Ford's at the site of the accident. The photographs at issue were taken from a camera mounted in another pickup truck, representing Clinton's vehicle, that approached the scene and stopped at various distances for photographs to be taken. Westfall testified that an external battery was connected to the truck used to represent Clinton's vehicle, so that the truck's headlights could be left on, but the engine turned off, while photographs were taken from the truck. Westfall testified that at the time of the reconstruction, he did not know whether Ford's truck had been equipped with a flashing strobe light or simply an amber rotating beacon, which Westfall conceded would not be as bright. The truck used for the reconstruction was equipped with an amber rotating beacon and not the brighter strobe light with which Ford's truck had been equipped. Westfall testified, however, that for the purpose of evaluating whether Ford had been visible to oncoming drivers, the presence of a beacon as opposed to a strobe light was not important. The district court, in overruling Ford's objections to Westfall's testimony, noted that the issue was not the visibility of the pickup truck, which Clinton obviously saw or he would not have driven around it, but, rather, whether Clinton should have seen Ford working by the side of the road. Westfall also testified regarding the photographs he took of the site of the reconstruction. Westfall testified, generally, that he took a series of photographs from different positions and using different variables, that he developed the photographs in different ways, and that he then selected the photographs that, to his recollection, best represented what he had seen at the site of the reconstruction. Westfall testified that each of the photographs admitted into evidence represented what Westfall had seen at the site of the reconstruction. The district court overruled Ford's objection to the photographs and instructed the jury that the photographs were admitted for the limited purpose of demonstrating what Westfall saw on the night of his reconstruction. Ford did not object at trial to the limiting instruction. The members of the repair crew, who were witnesses from the accident scene, testified that as part of their work, they had opened a fire hydrant east of Ford's truck. Westfall acknowledged that his reconstruction of the accident did not include an open fire hydrant and that the reconstruction did not include spraying water or wet pavement. Westfall testified that it was unnecessary for the fire hydrant to be opened during the reconstruction, because the fire hydrant was behind the truck, and that in his reconstruction, he could not see past the front of the truck. Ford did not refer specifically to the fire hydrant in objecting to Westfall's reconstruction of the accident scene. In rebuttal, Ford presented several witnesses who had been at the scene of the accident and who testified that the photographs produced by Westfall did not represent the lighting conditions at the scene of the accident. The defense cross-examined these witnesses with respect to where they had been at the scene of the accident and whether they had observed the scene from Clinton's perspective of a motorist eastbound on Third Street. Westfall testified that he did not ask any of the witnesses if the photographs matched the perspective of the witnesses, because, as far as he was aware, none of the witnesses had approached the scene from the same direction as Clinton. Ford presented the rebuttal testimony of Tom Feiereisen, an accident reconstruction expert, who testified at length regarding the photographs and opined that the photographs were darker than the conditions he had observed on his visits to the site of the accident. Ford also referred to a videotape made by the defense at Ford's own visibility study of the site of the accident, which videotape Ford's witnesses testified better represented the lighting conditions at the scene of the accident, but which Feiereisen testified did not show the clarity that was shown by the photographs. Feiereisen stated that neither, the videotape or the photographs, show what the eye sees. Feiereisen generally testified that no photograph or videotape could accurately depict what the human eye would see at the site of the accident. Westfall was also asked by the defense whether on the night of the accident, Clinton [did] what was reasonable expecting a person to do given the situation he was presented with at the time. Ford objected on the basis that the question posed by the defense call[ed] for speculation. Westfall's response to the question was that in his opinion, there was no reasonable expectation, this is an unexpected event, you can't have an expected response. After trial and deliberation, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant. In accordance with the jury's verdict, Ford's petition was dismissed by the district court. A motion for new trial, filed by Ford, was subsequently overruled. Ford timely appealed.