330 



NEGLIGENCE IN THE USE OF HORSES, ETC. 



ing on a 

 sudden. 



Eule of the 

 Road applies 

 to Saddle 

 Horses. 



Ordinary 



vehicles meet- 

 ing street or 

 tramcars. 



Foot pas- 

 sengers. 



by departing from it an injury can be avoided, and tliere 

 is clear space enough to get out of the way, yet in cases 

 where parties meet o)i a sudden, and an injury results, the 

 party on the wrong side is answerable, unless it clearly ap- 

 pear that the party on the right side had ample means and 

 opportunity to prevent it (w?). 



The rule of the road as to keeping the proper side 

 applies to Saddle Horses as well as to Carriages ; and if a 

 Carriage and a Horse are to pass, the Carriage must keep 

 its proper side and so must the Horse. But if the driver 

 of a Carriage is on his proper side, and sees a Horse coming 

 fm'iously on its wrong side of the road, it is the duty of 

 the driver of the Carriage to give way and avoid an acci- 

 dent, although in so doing he goes a little on what would 

 otherwise be the wrong side of the road {ii). 



In America it has been held that the rule of the road 

 has no application to the meeting of ordinary vehicles with 

 street cars. The ground for such decision being, that the 

 latter cannot turn off their path, and the former should 

 turn to that side which appears, under the circumstances, 

 to be the safest without regard to the usual rule, and the 

 fact that either was on the left of the road at the time of a 

 collision, is no evidence of negligence (a). And for the 

 same reason, when a collision occiu\s between an ordinary 

 vehicle and a street car, travelling side by side, the pre- 

 sumption is that the driver of the vehicle was negligent, 

 the car being unable to turn out(^). This rule appears 

 to be dictated by common sense, and to be applicable to 

 similar cases of collision between an ordinary vehicle and a 

 tramcar in England. 



The law as to Foot piassengers is laid down in the fol- 

 lowing case, where an action of Trespass was brought 

 for running over a Foot passenger with a Carriage which 

 was on its wrong side of the road, and Mr. Justice Pat- 

 teson said to the Jury, " A Foot passenger has a right 

 to cross a highway ; and it was held in one case {q) that 

 a Foot passenger has a right to walk along the carriage way. 

 But without going that length, it is quite clear that a Foot 

 passenger has a right to cross, and that persons driving 

 Carriages along the road ar£ liable if they do not take care 



554. 



C/iapUn V. Ilaurs, 3 C. & P. 



103. 



(;/) Ttirle>/ v. Thomas, 8 C. & P. 



(o) Ucfjan V. E'ujlitli Aajuteltall- 



tcai/ Co., 15 N. T. 380. 



{p) Suijdam v. Grand St. Eailway 

 Co., 41 Barb. 305; Siegel y. Eisen, 

 41 Cal. 109. 



{q) Host) V. lii/on, 5 C. & p. 407. 



