Court Opinion

ID: 9834523
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 23:39:44.239757+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:44:17.087605
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Counsel for appellant, on motion for rehearing, calls our attention to ,the fact that, after stating in our original opinion that D. W. Leach, Jr., deceased, approached the railway track at a speed of 18 miles per hour and stopped within about 15 feet of the south track to let a train on the north track pass, we, in a subsequent paragraph of the opinion, in effect, argue that it was shown that Leach, after having started up after his stop, approached the railway track at a speed of 18 miles per hour, and that, had the train not been exceeding a speed of 18 miles an hour, Leach, who was moving, at the same rate, would have 'crossed the railway at the point of the accident before the train which struck him could have reached such point.
We admit that we were in error in assuming that it was shown by the evidence that Leach, after he had stopped within 15 feet of the railway track, approached such track at a speed of 18 miles per hour. As a fact, the speed at which he approached such track after making such stop is not shown; however, it is shown that at the rate of speed at which he was approaching he reached and drove upon the railway track ahead of the train that struck him. It is thus made apparent that, had the train been approaching the point of the accident from a distance of 450 feet at a rate of speed of only 18 miles per hour, instead of 40 miles'per hour, the deceased would have had ample time to clear the track before the train could reach the point of the accident; such being a fact, our erroneous statement as to the speed of Leach in driving upon the track is harmless.