Robbins v. United States, 81-1566C(B).

• Decision Date: 18 July 1984
• Docket Number: No. 81-1566C(B).,81-1566C(B).
• Citation: 593 F. Supp. 634
• Parties: Roselyn ROBBINS and Jeffrey Robbins, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

593 F. Supp. 634

Roselyn ROBBINS and Jeffrey Robbins, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendants.

No. 81-1566C(B).

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, E.D.

July 18, 1984.

James Hullverson, St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiffs.

Bruce D. White, Asst. U.S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., for U.S.

William Evans, St. Louis, Mo., for Ronald Golden.

Joseph Mueller, St. Louis, Mo., for McLean Trucking.

FINDINGS OF FACT

REGAN, District Judge.

1. Plaintiffs Roselyn Robbins and Jeffrey Robbins, a married couple, are residents of the State of Missouri. The incident giving rise to this cause of action occurred within the Eastern District of Missouri.

2. On June 9, 1979, the date of the incident involved herein, Marvin R. Loper (Loper), a Major in the United States Air Force, was permanently stationed at Offutt Air Force Base outside Omaha, Nebraska.

3. For several weeks prior to June 9, 1979, Major Loper was on temporary duty at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. After receiving orders to report back to Offutt Air Base by June 10, 1979, Major Loper departed from Scott Air Base in his private pickup truck on June 9, 1979, and proceeded west toward Offutt Air Base.

4. Prior to the collision involved herein plaintiffs Jeffrey and Roselyn Robbins were proceeding west in their automobile on Interstate Highway 70 in Montgomery County, Missouri. As the plaintiffs approached Mineol, Missouri, at or about 4 p.m., they encountered an extremely heavy rainstorm. Hindered by poor visibility, Jeffrey Robbins pulled his vehicle completely onto the right shoulder of the highway where he parked it and waited for the rainstorm to subside.

5. At the point where the plaintiffs car was parked, the highway had two westbound traffic lanes with a shoulder on the right approximately twelve feet wide.

6. While plaintiffs waited for the storm to subside, a motorcyclist, David Ford, proceeding west on the highway, lost control of his motorcycle on the wet pavement, fell, and slid to a stop on the inside (the southernmost) lane of Highway 70 directly across from plaintiffs' vehicle.

7. Moments later a tractor-trailer owned by the McLean Trucking Company (McLean) and operated by Ray Taylor approached from the east and, to avoid colliding with the downed motorcyclist, came to a complete stop just east of the motorcycle in the inside westbound lane. The tractor-trailer remained parked there with its lights flashing to warn approaching traffic. The outside westbound lane was clear. The occurrence took place approximately one-third of the way down a gently sloping hill of approximately a mile in length.

8. After the McLean truck came to a stop, plaintiff Jeffrey Robbins left his automobile and went to the aid of David Ford, while plaintiff Roselyn Robbins remained in the automobile.

9. Jeffrey Robbins pulled David Ford to the grassy shoulder alongside the inside lane, when another (unidentified) tractor-trailer approached from the east. To avoid colliding with the McLean truck, the driver of the second tractor-trailer pulled his vehicle to the left of the McLean truck into the left shoulder area of the highway and struck a small bluff adjacent and parallel to the roadway. The driver of the second tractor trailer suffered a broken jaw and sustained other minor injuries as a result of this collision.

10. Sometime during the course of these events, Ronald A. Golden, also westbound, pulled his automobile onto the right shoulder of the highway, and parked it directly behind plaintiffs' automobile. The credible evidence demonstrates, and we so find, that the Golden vehicle was parked completely on the shoulder and off the traffic lanes of westbound Highway 70, and remained in that position with its lights on until it was struck by Loper's pick-up truck.

11. Roselyn Robbins was still seated in her vehicle when she observed the second tractor-trailer crash into the bluff. Believing that the driver of the tractor-trailer may have been injured, Mrs. Robbins (a registered nurse) got out of her vehicle for the purpose of aiding the driver. She stood on the shoulder in front of her automobile, facing south, intending to cross the highway when traffic was clear.

12. At about this time Major Loper was approaching from the east in his pick-up truck, traveling in the inside lane of westbound Highway 70. After cresting the hill east of the McLean truck, Loper belatedly observed that the truck was blocking the inside traffic lane in which he was driving. Without reducing his speed, he attempted to pass the parked truck by steering his vehicle towards and into the clear outside lane. In doing so, however, he failed to keep his truck entirely within that lane, with the result that Loper's vehicle violently struck the rear of the Golden car, and the Golden car in turn struck plaintiffs' automobile. Plaintiffs' car was jolted forward by the force of the collision and struck and injured Roselyn Robbins.

13. At the time Major Loper's truck collided with the Golden vehicle the rainstorm had subsided somewhat, but the highway was still covered with running water and was extremely hazardous. The testimony of eye witnesses, which we credit, put the speed of Major Loper's vehicle at somewhere between 55 and 70 miles per hour.

14. We find that the speed at which Loper was driving was excessive under the prevailing circumstances. We further find that Loper's failure to timely discover the McLean truck and the vehicles parked on the shoulder and to reduce his speed demonstrates that he did not keep a careful lookout.

15. In our judgment, Major Loper failed to exercise the care which a very careful and prudent person would have exercised in the circumstances then prevailing. Had Loper operated his truck at a reasonable rate of speed under the existing circumstances and had he kept a careful lookout, he could have safely passed the McLean truck and kept his vehicle entirely within the right hand lane and thus have avoided the collision with Golden's automobile. His failures to do so, both singly and in combination, constituted negligence which proximately resulted in the damages sustained by plaintiffs.

16. Mrs. Robbins' legs were badly crushed by the accident and she was in excruciating physical pain and mental anguish while waiting for an ambulance which finally arrived 20 to 30 minutes later and transported Mrs. Robbins to the Hermann, Missouri, hospital. There, the doctors decided that their facilities were inadequate to treat Mrs. Robbins' injuries, and she was transported to the University of Missouri Medical Center in Columbia, Missouri, all the while, except for a very brief period under medication, still suffering excruciating pain.

17. Roselyn Robbins remained as a patient in the University of Missouri Medical Center for over four months. During that time she underwent 13 operations to repair her shattered legs. Her left leg was so badly injured that it had to be amputated, first below the knee and then, after the left knee failed to respond to treatment, just above the knee. In addition, Roselyn Robbins underwent numerous skin grafts to cover the severe wounds she sustained to her right leg.

18. Following her stay in the University of Missouri Medical Center, Roselyn Robbins was transferred to the Rusk Rehabilitation Center, where she remained for seven weeks. While in Rusk she was fitted with a prosthesis.

19. After her discharge from the Rehabilitation Center, Roselyn Robbins began working half-days in a wheelchair. The other half of her days were spent as an outpatient at the Rehabilitation Center, training on the prosthesis and strengthening her right leg. She continued as an outpatient of the Rehabilitation Center for six months. Eventually Mrs. Robbins returned to work full-time in September, 1980.

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