Court Opinion

ID: 9535518
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:50:22.22202+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:16.408725
License: Public Domain

PETERS, J. Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur in the holding of the majority that the evidence is sufficient to support a finding that there was a dangerous condition under section 835 of the Government Code, and I also agree that, as a matter of law, there is no evidence of negligence on the part of Frank Becker. I dissent, however, from the majority holding that section 830.6 of the Government Code, dealing with immunity of public entities for the plan or design of public improvements, grants immunity to the county for the maintenance of a dangerous condition after knowledge that its approved plan created such a condition. It follows that although it was proper to grant the nonsuit in favor of Frank Becker, the nonsuit in favor of the county should be reversed.
The proper interpretation of section 830.6 was discussed by me in my dissent in Cabell v. State of California, ante, p. 155 [60 Cal.Rptr. 476, 430 P.2d 34], and need not again be repeated. It was there urged that the immunity conferred by the section for the plan and design of public improvements does not grant public entities immunity for failure to maintain improvements free from defects and dangerous conditions disclosed by the actual operation of the improvements. In the instant case, the history of accidents at the intersection in the years immediately preceding the accident, and the expert testimony that this type of intersection is *175a “classic” example of bad engineering1 are sufficient to justify a finding that the county continued to maintain the dangerous condition after the actual operation had disclosed it.
In considering whether the intersection constituted a dangerous condition, it should be pointed out at the outset that there was no stationary lighting at the intersection, and that the intersection is not a true Y intersection. As shown by the map appended to the majority opinion, a motorist proceeding straight ahead southbound on Auburn will drive into Sylvan Drive. In a true Y intersection a motorist must turn his steering wheel before entering either arm of the Y, and if he does not he will go off the road.
Shortly before the accident, according to Mrs. Johnston’s testimony, she observed a set of directly oncoming headlights on what appeared to be the other side of the road on which she was traveling. The obvious, if not the only, inference is that she saw a car approaching which she believed was on Auburn but in fact Avas on Sylvan. Any motorist driving at night in the exercise of due care Avould assume that, where he sees another automobile appear to be oncoming on a straight line on the other side of the road, his side of the road is also straight and does not curve unless there are clear circumstances indicating to the driver that the road in front of him is not straight but in fact curves. The main concern of a motorist driving at night on a highway Avithout stationary illumination is to remain on the highway, and among the methods by which he determines whether the highway curves or is straight is by the movement of other cars. When he sees a car straight ahead, he reasonably can assume that the *176highway does not curve in the absence of some clear evidence that liis assumption is wrong.2
None of the circumstances here present, as a matter of law, required the trier of fact to conclude that a reasonable driver exercising- due care could not believe that at the point of the accident Auburn continued straight ahead. The natural inference to be drawn from the fact that a car was approaching from straight ahead at least creates a conflict in the evidence. It is a factual question as to whether the Y sign and the curve sign on Auburn -would or would not indicate to a reasonable driver that there was a curve in Auburn at the point involved, or whether a driver might reasonably believe that the Y intersection and the curve in Auburn were located beyond the approaching car. It is true that a reasonable driver proceeding southbound on Auburn would ordinarily observe cars, like the Becker car, which were northbound, but it certainly is foreseeable that because of the angle of approach a reasonable driver in the exercise of due care would assume that a northbound car was approaching on a side road a substantial distance beyond the intersection of the roads.
In short, the jury could properly conclude that the alignment and construction of the road created a dangerous condition. if not a trap, and that, in the light of the history of accidents at the intersection, the county maintained the dangerous condition after the actual operation of the improvements-disclosed it.
I would affirm the judgment insofar as it grants a nonsuit to Frank Becker and reverse it insofar as it grants a nonsuit to the County of Sacramento.
Tobriner, J., concurred.

 "Classic” is apparently used in the literal sense, namely, this type of intersection is used as a classroom example of bad engineering for engineering students.
The expert witness pointed out that as to a particular intersection dangerousness depends in part on the traffic volume and that a traffic count taken in 1961 showed an average of 11,800 vehicles a day traveling on Auburn Boulevard just north of Sylvan Road. Examination of the map appended to the majority opinion shows that so long as traffic is heavy there is not much danger that a driver southbound on Auburn will fail to realize that there is an intersection or believe that Sylvan is really a continuation of Auburn. When traffic is heavy, the pattern of moving ears will itself disclose the curve in Auburn. The danger becomes substantial when there is little traffic at nighttime because there is no stationary lighting, and the danger becomes acute, as will be demonstrated lierinnfter, when a ear is approaching the intersection on Sylvan because the southbound motorist on Auburn may then he led to believe that Auburn continues into what is actually Sylvan and may not realize that Auburn turns.

 Tlie danger probably is not acute unless there is a third car, as here, proceeding northbound on Auburn. In the absence of such a ear it would seem that the motorist who believes Auburn is straight will merely drive onto Sylvan, discover his error, and retrace his path. Likewise the danger .is not so acute in the daytime when motorists in a situation such as that before us are not relying upon the lights of other ears to indicate the .location of the highway. Finally the situation is not dangerous when there are numerous cars on the highway because their presence will indicate that Auburn, which is the major highway, curves at the intersection and that Sylvan is merely a side road.
Nevertheless it is clearly foreseeable that at nighttime there may be few vehicles on the road, that cars will approach the intersection in substantially the pattern involved here, and that the motorist proceeding southbound on Auburn in the exercise of due care will be misled by an automobile approaching from Sylvan into believing that Auburn proceeds directly into Sylvan.
The expert testimony also shows other dangers inherent in this type of intersection, but they need not be detailed here.