Opinion ID: 2606599
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Sound of Horn

Text: A possible authority in Wyoming law which may have been considered is Fink v. Lewark, 70 Wyo. 150, 246 P.2d 195 (1952) (see also Blakeman v. Gopp, Wyo., 364 P.2d 986 (1961); and Jack v. Browne, Wyo., 410 P.2d 578 (1966)), which considered the effect of § 31-5-201(a) and (b) and denied liability of the following vehicle to the passed vehicle premised on the failure to sound the horn to announce his anticipated passing. This justification for escape from liability was not presented by appellee, and, in this case, can be simply answered by virtue of the acknowledged statement of the driver Simmons that he knew that the following vehicle intended and wanted to pass. Consequently, the warning requirement of a horn has no relevant implication or application in the statutory obligation to give way to the passing vehicle. It will be strange indeed if this decision is realistically to be premised on a footnote statement of the court when the record reflects that the desire to pass was known so that any horn sounding (even if it would have been heard) had no proximate relevance to the failure to comply with the statute and give way to the right for the following vehicle. As to the injured and innocent oncoming driver England, it really did not matter whether it was by sound of horn or other driver signal that Simmons knew Barnes wanted to pass. Simmons admitted knowing for a period of time that Barnes wanted to pass, and did nothing to comply with the statutory directive until the action he did take involved the foreseeable head-on collision between the other two vehicles then entering the zone of cause and effect. The most recent and controlling authorities are Checker Yellow Cab Co. v. Shiflett, Wyo., 351 P.2d 660 (1960), and Campbell v. W.S. Hatch Co., Wyo., 622 P.2d 944 (1981), which are directly in point on the horn-sounding, proximate-cause factor. Hornsounding is not informative or imperative if the overtaken vehicle knows that the rear vehicle exists and desires to pass. Absence of horn-sounding is not a justified basis for summary-judgment disposition in this case.