Court Opinion

ID: 9856277
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:43:42.730062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:32.316921
License: Public Domain

*443Lewis, Justice
(dissenting).
In my opinion, the evidence and the reasonable inferences properly drawn therefrom, viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, as we are required to do in considering an appeal from a directed verdict for the defendant, presented issues of fact which were for the jury to determine and not the court. I, therefore, respectfully dissent.
The collision occurred at an intersection of two State Highways as the driver of the truck in which the plaintiff’s intestate was riding made a turn at the intersection from his side of the road to the left across the lane of traffic in which the defendant’s bus was proceeding. The majority opinion is bottomed upon the conclusion, erroneously I think, that the only reasonable inference to be drawn from the testimony is that the driver of the pick-up truck turned suddenly into the path of the defendant’s bus, and that regardless of the speed of the bus the driver could not have avoided the collision.
There is testimony from which the conclusion may be reasonably drawn that the driver of the bus realized that he was approaching a situation of danger in ample time to have avoided the collision if he had been operating the bus at a lawful and reasonable speed.
The record sustains the inference of excessive speed on the part of the bus. Witnesses testified that the bus was travelling from 70 to 80 miles per hour as it passed another vehicle about 1200 feet from the intersection. There was other testimony that it was traveling from fifty to fifty-five miles per hour at the time of the collision, after applying the brakes. Before the impact, the bus made 28 feet of tire friction marks on the pavement, followed by 98 feet 10 inches of definite brake or skid marks. The pick-up truck was knocked 34 feet 10 inches from the point of impact and the bus then travelled 43 feet 10 inches, struck a ditch, bounced into the air approximately 10 feet, coming to rest on the bank of the ditch. This testimony clearly presented a jury issue as to the excessiveness of the speed of the bus.
*444The testimony also presents an issue of fact as to whether the pick-up truck turned abruptly into the path of the bus. The driver of the bus testified that when he “first noticed this vehicle that it was going to come into my path, I would say I was within thirty feet of it.” Yet, the uncontradicted physical facts show that, before the impact, the tires of the bus made 28 feet of friction marks followed by 98 feet 10 inches of definite brake or skid marks. As held in Green v. Boney, 233 S. C. 49, 103 S. E. (2d) 732, 66 A. L. R. (2d) 1370, in view of the testimony that the bus skidded approximately 127 feet before the collision, a jury would be fully warranted in rejecting the defendant’s contention that when the vehicles were only approximately 30 feet apart, the driver of the pick-up truck suddenly made a left turn in front of the bus.
There was other testimony directly bearing upon knowledge by the driver of the bus of danger at the intersection in time to have avoided the collision if the bus had been operated at a lawful and reasonable speed. The driver of the bus testified that it would take a distance of approximately 230 feet to stop the bus from the time he first saw danger confronting him, travelling at a speed of 55 miles per hour. He further stated that, when he was approximately 250 feet away, he noticed a vehicle (which was never located after the wreck) in his left, lane which had stopped at the intersection and was giving a signal to make a left turn. He said that, upon seeing this vehicle So stopped at the intersection, he applied brakes “because I wasn’t sure as to what the vehicle was going to do,” but later released his brakes as he realized that it was going to sit still. After getting closer to this vehicle, the driver testified that he then, for the first time, saw the pick-up truck come directly from behind the stopped vehicle. The patrolman, who investigated the accident, testified that the driver of the bus gave him the following version of what happened: “He was travelling toward Darlington which is south and said there was a cookie or bread truck, and he said he saw this pick-up truck coming *445and he started to go on off the left-hand side because he didn’t know what was going to happen; said he started slowing up. And said he saw this truck and he cut out to the left and that he cut back one more time and that is the last time he saw it until he hit him.”
If the driver of the bus cut to the left after seeing the pickup truck, as he told the patrolman after the collision, he must have seen the pick-up truck and made such turn at some point prior to the beginning of the tire marks on the pavement, which began 127 feet from the point of impact, because the record indicates nothing but a straight line of skid marks in the right lane of the bus.
Certainly, it cannot be correctly said that under this testimony the pick-up truck in which the intestate was riding turned suddenly into the path of the bus. The record gives rise to the reasonable inference that the bus driver saw, at least 250 feet away and within his estimate of braking distance, if driving at 55 miles per hour, the danger at the intersection and because of his excessive speed could not control the bus so as to avoid the collision, which it was his duty to do.
Since, in my opinion, the evidence gives rise to a reasonable inference that the driver of the defendant’s bus was guilty of negligent or reckless conduct which contributed as a proximate cause to the death of plaintiff’s intestate, I would reverse the judgment of the lower court and remand the case for a new trial.