Court Opinion

ID: 9534514
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:40:28.958539+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:31:03.387041
License: Public Domain

TAYLOR, Justice.
I concur in the opinion by SMITH, J.
On the basis of the testimony of Floyd Kuhn, alone, the stopping and permitting of the Kuhn car to stand upon the traveled portion of the highway was in violation of I.C. § 49-755. That section provides:
“(a) Upon any highway outside of a business or residence district, no person shall stop, park, or leave standing any vehicle, whether attended or unattended, upon the paved or main-traveled part of the highway when it is practical to stop, park, or so leave such vehicle off such part of said highway, but in every event an unobstructed width of the highway opposite a standing vehicle shall be left for the free passage of other vehicles and a clear view of such stopped vehicles shall be available from a distance of 200 feet in each direction upon such highway.
*259“(b) This section shall not apply to the driver of any vehicle which is disabled while on the paved or main-traveled portion of a highway in such manner and to such extent that it is impossible to avoid stopping and temporarily leaving such disabled vehicle in such position.”
During the course of the last quarter of a mile of its travel, while it was coasting downhill, it could have been guided off the traveled portion of the highway and onto the shoulder, out of the way of oncoming traffic. Even after it had stopped, since it was facing downhill, its driver presumably could have pushed it off the traveled portion of the highway. The shoulder was shown to be one sloping gently outward a distance of fifteen feet. The fact that it may have been wet, could not justify the driver in leaving the car on the traveled area where it constituted a menace to other drivers lawfully using the highway. The record conclusively shows that it was not disabled to such extent that it was “impossible to avoid stopping” and leaving it upon the traveled portion of the highway. The statute contemplates that where the choice is between the necessity of pulling a car back on the highway with a wrecker, or leaving it in a position such as to endanger not only the life of its driver, but others lawfully using the highway, the driver must choose the way of safety. The use of the word “impossible” in the statute negatives the idea that a driver may consult his own convenience in deciding whether he will stop, or move his disabled car off the traveled portion of the highway.
Young Kuhn’s negligence in leaving the car on the highway did not result in a static or passive situation. Since the car could have been moved off the roadway, his negligence in not so moving it and in permitting it to stand on the traveled portion was continuing and active negligence and remained of such character up to the time of the collision.
By the Kuhn complaint, Dell, the driver of the other car, was charged with negligence in failing to see the Kuhn car in time, and with failing to so operate the Dell car as to avoid the collision. The issues of negligence on the part of Dell and the contributory negligence of Kuhn were submitted to the jury and were determined by its verdict against Kuhn and in favor of Dell. To require the trial court to instruct the jury that it should also determine whether or not the driver Bell was negligent in failing to see the Kuhn car in time to avoid the collision, and, if so, to hold him solely responsible for the accident, without any evidence that he actually saw the Kuhn car and became aware of its presence on the traveled portion of the highway in time to avoid the collision, is equivalent to instructing the jurors that they must find for the plaintiff regardless of his contributory neg*260lígence if they find ordinary negligence on the part of defendant. In this case the hour was late afternoon, dusk; drivers on the highway were using their lights; the reflection of the lights from the city of Nampa could he seen from the hilltop; there had been a light rain; there was at the time a drizzle and the atmosphere was misty; and the Dell car was being operated in a lawful manner and within the posted speed limit. To apply the doctrine of last clear chance against Dell under such circumstances is equivalent to assuming that he did see the Kuhn car in time to have avoided it. In my opinion the failure to give an instruction on the last clear chance in favor of the ■plaintiff was not error.