Miller v. Crown Amusements, Inc.

David Miller (plaintiff) and his sister-in-law, Linda Carper, stopped at the side of a highway to help Charles Shideler, who had pulled over to fix his pickup truck. A trailer truck drove by and hit Miller and Shideler, killing Shideler and injuring Miller. The trailer truck did not stop, and Carper did not see the accident. Carper got into her vehicle and drove to the nearest payphone, which was 4.5 miles away, and called 911. This distance would have taken about six and a half minutes to drive. A minute and a half after Carper called 911, another person called 911 to report the accident. The second caller did not identify herself, but she stated that she noticed the trailer truck had hit the two men, stated that Crown Amusements was written on the side of the truck, described the two men and the two vehicles, gave an approximate location of the accident using a mile marker, and said that this was the first opportunity for her to reach a phone. The distance from the scene of the accident to the location where the second caller placed her call was 6.3 miles, which would have taken approximately eight minutes and 45 seconds to travel. The payphone where she placed her call was the first phone near the same highway where the accident occurred. Miller sued Crown Amusements, Inc. (defendant) for his injuries. Although the caller of the second 911 call was not available to testify, Miller filed a pretrial motion for a determination that the recording of the second 911 call was admissible.