Theresa E. Pepin v. Robert Beaulieu

On the night of the accident shortly before 9:00 P. M., the plaintiff was riding as a passenger in a motor vehicle owned by her and being operated by her husband. It was snowing lightly and the roads were wet and slippery. They had previously stopped for plaintiff's brother and were proceeding southerly on South Willow Street intending to pick up the brother's ""girl friend"" who lived on the easterly side of South Willow Street beyond Martin Street. Plaintiff's operator made a righthand turn into Martin Street, backed out into South Willow Street in a southerly direction 25 to 50 feet and pulled ahead to the curb on the righthand side of the street heading north and stopped the motor vehicle. The lights were on. During the process of backing up, plaintiff's operator looked several times north and south but observed no other vehicles. He had an unobstructed view of approximately one thousand feet to the south. After stopping the motor vehicle, he started to open the door and for the first time observed the lights of a defendant's car coming from the south about 125 feet away. He closed the door and told the passengers to ""brace up"" and the vehicle was immediately struck a hard blow in the rear. There was no other traffic on the highway at the time, and the defendant had ample room to pull out and pass plaintiff's vehicle.