Court Opinion

ID: 9811775
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 22:28:12.51454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:21:22.020560
License: Public Domain

Stacy, C. J.,
dissenting: I think it should be held as a matter of law that plaintiff’s intestate was contributorily negligent. “He came around the curve . . . between 50 and 60 miles an hour, . . . and there was plenty of room for him to go between us” — so testified plaintiff’s own witness. Instead of taking the path of safety, he seems to have followed his “bicycle eye” and drove directly into the defend*652ant’s Buick car. “As the Buick came around, be commenced blowing, . . . threw up his bands, and it made a curious fuss like be cut it off” — this is the only evidence, offered by the plaintiff, to show what plaintiff’s intestate did as be approached the defendant’s car.
An inexperienced operator of a motorcycle who drives it upon the highway, around a 45-degree curve at 50 or 60 miles an hour, is certainly driving “at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent.” Davis v. Jeffreys, 197 N. C., 712, 150 S. E., 488. This is in violation of the statute intended and designed to prevent injury to persons or property. Godfrey v. Coach Co., 201 N. C., 264, 159 S. E., 412. The positive provision of the statute is, that “No person shall drive a vehicle on a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions then existing.”
Plaintiff’s intestate’s negligence, in order to bar a recovery, need not be the exclusive or sole proximate cause of the injury. It is enough if it contribute to the injury. Wright v. Grocery Co., ante, 462; Construction Co. v. R. R., 184 N. C., 179, 113 S. E., 672.
CoNNOB, J., concurs in dissent.