Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co. v. Gipson

Carleton Harris, Chief Justice.

This is a railroad crossing accident case. Mrs. Barbara Gipson, a 24-year-old housewife, 'was driving her husband’s 1953 Studebaker pickup truck with her two daughters, ages 3 and 2, as passengers, on May 26, 1965, about 9:30 a.m. Mrs. Gipson stopped the truck at a railroad crossing in the town of Bigelow, Arkansas. She then attempted to start the truck, but it would not start; however, as she was trying to start it, the truck rolled onto the tracks.1 She again attempted to start it, but the starter just “grinded,” and about the same time she heard an…