Court Opinion

ID: 9562188
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:23:21.533102+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:14.839286
License: Public Domain

*153JOHNSON, J.,
dissenting. As I interpret the majority opinion, it holds that the plaintiff’s case fails because there was no evidence tending to show that the sound of the siren was loud enough to justify the inference that the bus driver heard, or should have heard, the signal in time for him, “as a prudent operator,” to have yielded the right of way. True, no witness testified as to the approximate distance the siren was heard or should have been heard ahead of the ambulance and eastwardly along Fourth Street as it approached the intersection going north on McDowell Street. However, the evidence does disclose that the siren was “on the very highest peak” and that the traffic light in front of the ambulance was showing red. This means that traffic on the side street, Fourth Street, had the green light. Notwithstanding this, a car going east on Fourth Street pulled up at the intersection and yielded the right of way to the ambulance. Similarly, a taxi going west on Fourth Street pulled up on the other side of the intersection and yielded the right of way to the ambulance. The foregoing evidence, it seems to me, is sufficient to justify the inference that the driver of the bus should have heard and heeded the siren in time to yield the right of way, as did the other two motorists on Fourth Street. Conceding, as suggested in the majority opinion, that the other two motorists may have seen the ambulance approaching and relied on their senses of sight in yielding the right of way, even so, this is only one of two permissive inferences, the other being that the motorists approaching on Fourth Street first heard the siren and relied on their senses of hearing as they made ready to stop and yield the right of way. All things considered, I think it was a case for the jury. My vote is to reverse the nonsuit.
Bobbitt, J., concurs in dissent.