QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DRIVER WITH RIGHT OF WAY HAD TIME TO TAKE EVASIVE ACTION TO AVOID A CAR CROSSING HIS PATH TO MAKE A LEFT TURN (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department determined a question of fact precluded summary judgment in favor of defendant in this truck-car intersection collision case. The defendant truck driver, Head, alleged the driver of the car in which plaintiff was a passenger (Sinclair) made a left turn across the truck’s path and Head did not have time to avoid the collision. However an eyewitness, Fuller, testified there was sufficient time for the truck driver to take evasive action:

​

In this context, Head “was bound to see what[,] by the proper use of [his] senses[,] [he] might have seen” and, if the circumstances were as described by Fuller, and if Head should have observed Sinclair’s car turning left, “then the accident would be a reasonably foreseeable risk and [Head] would have had a duty to avoid striking [Sinclair], if it were possible to do so”… . Fuller’s materially different version of the accident, if credited, could support the conclusion that Head had adequate time and opportunity to observe Sinclair’s turning car and take evasive action … . That is, Head had “a duty to use reasonable care to avoid a collision” and, unless he had “only seconds to react” to Sinclair’s failure to yield the right-of-way, an issue disputed by plaintiff’s evidence, Head may be partly at fault … . Debra F. v New Hope View Farm, 2017 NY Slip Op 08429, Third Dept 11-30-17

 

NEGLIGENCE (TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS, QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DRIVER WITH RIGHT OF WAY HAD TIME TO TAKE EVASIVE ACTION TO AVOID A CAR CROSSING HIS PATH TO MAKE A LEFT TURN (THIRD DEPT))/COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE (TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS, QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DRIVER WITH RIGHT OF WAY HAD TIME TO TAKE EVASIVE ACTION TO AVOID A CAR CROSSING HIS PATH TO MAKE A LEFT TURN (THIRD DEPT))/TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS (COMPARATIVE FAULT,  QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DRIVER WITH RIGHT OF WAY HAD TIME TO TAKE EVASIVE ACTION TO AVOID A CAR CROSSING HIS PATH TO MAKE A LEFT TURN (THIRD DEPT))/RIGHT OF WAY (TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS, COMPARATIVE FAULT, QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DRIVER WITH RIGHT OF WAY HAD TIME TO TAKE EVASIVE ACTION TO AVOID A CAR CROSSING HIS PATH TO MAKE A LEFT TURN (THIRD DEPT))