Boykin v. Bissette, 247
Decision Date | 09 October 1963 |
Docket Number | No. 247,247 |
Citation | 132 S.E.2d 616,260 N.C. 295 |
Parties | Doretha BOYKIN, Administratrix of the Estate of Linda Louise Burnette, Deceased, v. Beulah Burnette BISSETTE and Johnnie P. Harris. |
Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Robert A. Farris and Allen G. Thomas by Allen G. Thomas, Wilson, for plaintiff-appellant.
Narron, Holdford & Holdford by Talmadge Narron, Wilson, for defendant-appellee.
Plaintiff's evidence considered in the light most favorable to her (Bridges v. Graham, 246 N.C. 371, 98 S.E.2d 492) tends to show the following:
About 5:30 p. m. on 28 June 1960 defendant Beulah Burnette Bissette was driving a Ford automobile, owned by defendant Johnnie P. Harris, in a westerly direction on Highway 264 about one and one-half miles west of Middlesex. Mrs. Cleo Harris, wife of Johnnie P. Harris, was sitting in the middle on the front seat. Sitting on her right on the front seat was Mrs. Marie Burnette, who was holding in her lap her daughter Linda Louise Burnette, a healthy baby two months eleven days old. Three boys were sitting on the back seat. About one and one-half miles west of Middlesex the pavement on the highway is about 24 feet wide, with dirt shoulders on each side about 10 feet wide. At this point the highway is straight and hilly. The weather was clear and the pavement was dry.
After passing through Middlesex, Beulah Burnette Bissette, driving at a speed of about 35 to 40 miles an hour, tried two or three times to pass a red pickup truck traveling ahead. Mrs. Marie Burnette testified:
Mrs. Cleo Harris testified:
When Beulah Burnette Bissette, immediately before her automobile left the road and hit the tree, drove to the left to pass the red pickup truck ahead, she was traveling down a steep hill, and there was no approaching traffic. Just as she approached the pickup truck to pass, it came across the white line into her lane of traffic. She cut her automobile to the left, and it left the highway, went down an embankment, and crashed into a tree. Tracks leading from the automobile at the tree to the pavement on the highway measured about 215 feet.
When the automobile hit the tree, its front was severely damaged. As a result of the automobile crashing into the tree, the baby Linda Louise Burnette sustained a fractured skull, which caused her death about two hours later. Mrs. Cleo Harris and Mrs. Marie Burnette sustained severe injuries in the wreck, requiring several months' hospitalization for each.
The driver of the red pickup truck did not stop. He has never been discovered or identified.
There is nothing in the record to indicate that Beulah Burnette Bissette was driving in a business or residential district as defined in G.S. §§ 20-38(a) and (w)1, at any place she attempted to overtake and pass the pickup truck ahead; in fact the record indicates it was open country. G.S. § 20-149(b) states: 'The driver of an overtaking motor vehicle not within a business or residence district, as herein defined, shall give audible warning with his horn or other warning device before passing or attempting to pass a...
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