Court Opinion

ID: 9536298
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:57:18.173608+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:32:10.737965
License: Public Domain

ELLETT, Justice
(concurring).
I concur with Justice Callister and in ■doing so would emphasize the fact that the ■only evidence that the Volkswagen was ever across the center line of the highway is that one of its tires made the mark numbered 2 on the picture submitted by the Chief Justice in his dissenting opinion.
The force of the impact was so great that the Volkswagen was knocked backward for a considerable distance and was initially rotated in a counter-clockwise direction, as is shown by the scuff mark indicated on the picture as point numbered 1. The gouge mark at point numbered 6 is north of the point of impact and shows that the movement of that part of the Volkswagen which made it was being forced towards the center line of the highway. The fact that after the car hurtled through the air one of the wheels landed a few inches across the center line is no evidence whatsoever that the car was across the center at the time of impact.
The dissenting opinion would take consolation for its position in measuring from the center of the U turn marked as point 1 in the picture. This is not proper. Since the Volkswagen was, upon impact, pushed towards the center of the highway, the measurement must be from the easternmost edge of the U. Measurement from this correct point places the outside edge of the left front tire four inches from the middle of the center line of the highway; and since the outside of the Volkswagen overhangs the tire by only two inches, the widest part of the Volkswagen at the time of *284impact was exactly two inches east of the middle of the center line of the highway.
The question of who was at fault in causing this terrible accident can be determined only by knowing where the cars were at the time of impact. There is not even a scintilla of evidence that at and prior to the collision the Volkswagen was elsewhere than in its proper lane of travel.