Contributory Negligence & Cows

Sharpe v. Aqua Systems, 13 So.2d 903 (Fla. 1943)

Sharpe got off the bus and turned directly in front of it to cross the street, stepping directly in the path of a passing truck -- which he did not see until it struck him, even though the street was clear and unobstructed. This case is a reminder of how much society has changed since 1943:

This case is a mute reminder that our pattern of highway behavior has failed ignominiously to keep pace with our climate of intellectual and aesthetic culture. Men and women of normal faculties and college tutored who would stick their heads in a noose before they would lap their soup, eat their peas with a knife, or wear unmatched garments, will alight from a motor vehicle or appear out of the blue and walk or drive as nonchalantly as a wire grass cow on to a paved speedway in front of moving traffic. The number of cases that are making their way to the courts as a result of such accidents is distressing and nine-tenths of them could be avoided with reasonable precaution.

Moral, if your pattern of highway behavior must be that of the age of the pack horse, stay on the cow trails. If you insist on traveling the modern highway, then move your pattern up to the age of rapid transit.