Ross v. Altvater
| Decision Date | 14 September 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 38730,38730 |
| Parties | Robertson ROSS and Sherry Ross, his wife, Appellants, v. W. R. ALTVATER and Jane Doe Altvater, his wife, and the State of Washington, Defendants, and Ronald C. Knutzen, Chris Knutzen & Co., a partnership, Einar Knutzen and Jane Doe Knutzen, his wife, Iver Knutzen and Jane Doe Knutzen, his wife, Respondents. |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
Wright, Simon, Todd & Schmechel, Seattle, for appellants.
Bayley, Fite, Madden & Poliak, William J. Madden, Seattle, for respondents.
Plaintiff appeals from a judgment of dismissal entered after the trial court had sustained defendant's motion for summary judgment.
This action was brought as the result of an accident involving defendant's tractor, with two trailers attached, and an automobile in which plaintiff was riding.
The accident occurred about eighteen miles east of North Bend on a four-lane highway, two lanes eastbound and two lanes westbound. The eastbound lanes are separated from the westbound by an asphalt center strip approximately 30 inches in width. The highway has a yellow line on each side of the asphalt and has improved shoulders.
One of the defendants, accompanied by a helper, was driving a 1960 Kenworth tractor with two trailers over Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate Highway 90 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon. While proceeding in the Outside westbound lane at 15 miles per hour, the truck and trailers struck ice on the highway. Defendant lost control. The truck and trailers crossed both westbound lanes, the center strip, and the two eastbound lanes of traffic. The tractor and first trailer came to rest against a snowbank off the highway. They were facing east, having completed a 'U' turn. The record does not fix the final position of the second trailer with complete accuracy. Its afterend either blocked two or three feet of the outside eastbound lane of traffic, or it blocked the outside eastbound lane and two or three feet of the inside eastbound lane. It is undisputed, however, that there was sufficient room for eastbound traffic to pass on the inside eastbound lane; the trailer in nowise blocked westbound traffic.
Shortly after the accident a Washington state trooper arrived at the scene. He parked his automobile approximately 100 feet behind the tractor and trailers in the outside eastbound traffic lane. The red, rotating light on top of the patrol car was flashing.
Subsequently, an automobile driven by Mrs. Robert Wenke, westbound from the summit of Snoqualmie Pass, approached the scene of the accident. She testified that she saw the truck when she 'was 800 feet away from it.' The Wenke vehicle fell victim to the same icy road conditions as did the tractor and trailers of the defendants. The testimony indicates that Mrs. Wenke lost control of her car several hundred feet east of the disabled truck.
The results were similar. Mrs. Wenke's automobile skidded across the inside westbound lane, the center strip, the inside eastbound lane and struck the left rear corner of the second trailer. Plaintiff, a passenger in the Wenke automobile was injured.
Plaintiff urges that the summary judgment for defendants is inappropriate...
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