Giovannoni

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered upon a verdict for damages for the death of Antonio Lanaro, which occurred as a result of a collision between an ice truck and a motorcycle.

The highway which traversed Alta Heights in east Napa was undergoing repairs. Spring Street, which intersected the highway in that vicinity and extended at a right angle practically east and west, was then used as a detour. In the block adjoining the highway Spring Street ascended to that thoroughfare at approximately a six per cent grade. Spring Street was sixty feet in width between adjoining property lines. Down the center of this street a fifteen-foot strip was covered with loose gravel as a base for road purposes for the use of vehicles. The traveled portion of this graveled strip had been worn to a hard, smooth surface for a space of about eight or nine feet in width. A strip of loose gravel some three feet- in width had accumulated along either side of the traveled way. The balance of the street, consisting of dirt, was fairly smooth and passable, but was ordinarily unused along the borders thereof.

On the afternoon of September 9, 1927, Antonio Lanaro, who was the chief means of support of…