Opinion ID: 2468034
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The evidence of other accidents.

Text: At 4:45 A.M., some two hours before the accident in question, the appellee Sechrest's witness Roy Pollett, driving southward at a speed of 40 m. p. h. with his headlights on, had encountered the ice in the vicinity of Coleman's Lane and lost control of his automobile, which went off the highway, turned around and struck a telephone pole. He did not see the ice before he was upon it. A few minutes after the Sechrest accident the witness Gail Tackett, also driving southward at the same place and at a speed of 40 m. p. h., had a similar experience, and had not observed the ice before he skidded. Another witness, W. J. Jones, whose automobile was struck from the rear by the Tackett vehicle, gave testimony substantially to the same effect. The appellants objected to all of this evidence of other accidents, claiming among other arguments that they were not shown to have occurred under similar circumstances (for example, speed) as the Sechrest accident. Evidence of the occurrence or nonoccurrence of other accidents or injuries under substantially similar circumstances is admissible when relevant to certain limited issues, such as the existence or causative role of a dangerous condition, or a party's notice of such a condition. McCormick on Evidence (2d ed.) § 200; Wigmore on Evidence (3d ed.) § 458; 29 Am.Jur.2d, Evidence, §§ 305 et seq.; and Annotations at 31 ALR2d 190 and 70 ALR2d 167. Most usually, as indicated by the authorities collected in these texts, the case in which it is admitted involves a claim against the person or persons responsible for the condition alleged to have been the cause of the accident. In the instant proceeding it was of course unnecessary for these particular purposes, because there was no real issue as to whether the patch of ice on an otherwise dry highway constituted a dangerous condition or whether that condition was a causative factor in the accident, and there was no contention that any of the accidents were relevant to the issue of notice. Hence the only purpose that could have been served by this evidence was to show whether Sechrest was negligent by comparison with the experience of other persons under similar circumstances. As we all recognize, in a negligence case the comparison to be made is between the party alleged to have been negligent and that imaginary ideal, the ordinarily prudent person acting under similar circumstances. Without any way to prove or to judge whether another person who did or did not have an accident at the same place and under the same circumstances was himself an ordinarily prudent person, or was above or below average in that respect, we are forced to the conclusion that such evidence cannot be competent on the narrow issue of negligence. [1] Cf. 29 Am.Jur.2d, Evidence, § 308. Our opinions on the subject disclose a certain degree of ambivalence. The general rule stated in Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Loesch, 215 Ky. 452, 284 S.W. 1097, 1100, 47 A.L.R. 347 (1926), is that evidence of a previous accident at the same place is incompetent upon the investigation of the cause of a subsequent one. Yet in Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Jackson's Adm'r, 250 Ky. 92, 61 S.W.2d 1104, 1105 (1933), and Phelps v. Henkels & McCoy, Inc., Ky., 435 S.W.2d 83, 86 (1968), the absence of contributory negligence on the part of plaintiff's decedent was cited as an issue on which such evidence may be admitted. In neither of those cases, however, was it necessary so to decide, because in each of them the evidence was admissible as tending to show both the dangerous tendencies of the condition and notice to the defendant who was alleged to be responsible for it, and to the extent that they stand for the proposition that the occurrence or nonoccurrence of other accidents may be shown for the sheer purpose of comparison with the conduct of a party alleged to have been negligent in a similar accident they are overruled. Although we hold the evidence of other accidents inadmissible on the issue of Sechrest's negligence, vel non, its reception by the trial court was not only justified but made necessary by testimony introduced earlier, over objections of the appellees, by the appellants themselves. For example, the witness Libby Abrams testified that shortly before the accident she had driven over the same patch of ice but was able to see it in time to reduce her speed from 45 m. p. h. and pass over it without accident. The witness Luther Mason came along after the accident, did not notice the ice at all, topped the crest of the hill at 40 to 50 m. p. h. without having skidded, and then stopped upon seeing a lady he knew standing by the side of the road. The witness Frank Sargent drove past the scene of the accident at 7:30 or 8:00 A.M., in the daylight, at a speed of 40 to 50 m. p. h., saw the ice at a distance of 50 to 60 feet, continued across it without slackening speed, and had no trouble. Four other occupants (one of them being the husband of Mrs. Harris) of a car that drove by in the same direction within minutes after the accident were permitted to testify that they saw the ice from a distance of three or four car lengths and that the driver slowed down from 40 to 45 m. p. h. to 5 m. p. h., or as much as possible, and passed on with no difficulty. The admission, over Sechrest's objection, of this array of evidence to the effect that some people got by without accident entitled him to rebut it by evidence that other motorists were not so fortunate. Claycomb v. Howard, Ky., 493 S.W.2d 714, 717 (1973). In short, the appellants, having opened the book on the subject, were not in a position to complain when their adversaries sought to read other verses from the same chapter and page. We do not perceive any substantial dissimilarity in the circumstances.