Frankel v. United States

Facts

On April 30, 1966, at intersection of West Chester Pike and Providence Road in Edgemont Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, vehicle driven by Mary Heym in which her nineteen-year-old daughter Marilyn was passenger collided with vehicle driven by Ronald Glasser, Department of Army employee acting within scope of employment. Glasser was traveling westbound at fifty-five miles per hour on wet highway with fifty mile per hour speed limit, driving vehicle with bald tires. When he observed Heym vehicle crossing eastbound lanes and entering median strip approximately two hundred fifty feet from intersection, he failed to decelerate, incorrectly assuming Heym would turn left, and instead changed lanes intending to pass on right. He applied brakes only fifty to sixty feet from intersection, too late to avoid collision. Mary Heym, after crossing eastbound lanes at six to seven miles per hour and slowing to three miles per hour at median strip, proceeded across westbound lanes accelerating to eight to ten miles per hour when Glasser was only two hundred fifty feet away. Collision occurred in outside westbound lane. Marilyn was thrown from vehicle and suffered compound skull fracture, severe brain damage, crush injuries requiring left arm amputation, fractured clavicle, kidney contusions, and permanent disabilities including mental capacity of five-year-old child, psychotic behavior, inability to walk unassisted, and loss of all prospects for normal life including career as commercial artist and marriage. At time of accident, Marilyn had completed two years at Academy of Fine Arts and was expected to pursue career as commercial artist.