Court Opinion

ID: 9767487
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:20:27.124266+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:31.432887
License: Public Domain

HUGHES, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion.
Appellant urges, in his first point of error, that the court erred in excluding from evidence other auto-train collisions that occurred at the same location. Evidence of earlier accidents that occur under reasonably similar, but not necessarily identical, circumstances are admissible. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R. Co. v. May, 600 S.W.2d 755 (Tex.1980).
Assuming that any or all of the excluded accidents occurred under reasonably similar circumstances, I would find that evidence of the previous accidents was merely cumulative of other evidence in the record, and not harmful error. Thrailkill v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 670 S.W.2d 382 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1984, writ ref’d n.r.e.).
The cumulative evidence includes testimony from Dr. Dart, appellants’ expert witness, several lay witnesses, and the Tre-mont accident report. Dr. Dart, an expert in the field of accident reconstruction, iden*697tified the following factors of the dangerous nature of the Stiles crossing: (1) the absence of gates at the crossing; (2) the close proximity of the crossing to Highway 90; (3) the amount of traffic on Highway 90; and (4) the hump in the crossing. Dr. Dart additionally testified that he performed an analysis to calculate the expected accident rate for the 10 year period for this location. In considering the history of this crossing, he determined that it did not come within the safety factor of an expected accident rate of 2.6 accidents in 10 years.
Mr. Spheeris, a witness called by the appellants, testified to particular problems at the crossing, including heavy traffic and the double stop sign. Ms. Plummer, another lay witness testified that this was a heavily travelled intersection, which was used by school busses. The jury also heard testimony concerning the Tremont accident. In the Tremont accident, Jennifer Tremont was killed when she was broadsided by a train at the Stiles Road crossing.
Therefore, the trial court’s exclusion of the other accident reports did not cause such a denial of appellants’ right that an improper verdict was caused thereby. Tex. R.App.P. 81(b)(1). I would affirm the judgment.