Lauder

This appeal arises out of a double rear-end accident that occurred on the southbound portion of the Harbor Freeway. For convenience in this opinion, Wallace Jobe will be referred to as defendant Jobe or Jobe, and Alfred E. Lauder will be referred to as plaintiff Lauder or Lauder, although, as will become apparent below, we are actually dealing with consolidated cross-actions. Plaintiff Lauder’s 1959 Impala Chevrolet was traveling southbound in the lane next to the “fast” lane. 1 He was following a Cadillac belonging to his friend, Eldridge. Apparently a metal box or frame fell off of a truck of one Summers that had also been traveling in the number two lane. The driver of the truck had stopped in that lane, and seemed to be in the process of retrieving the metal object when the truck came into Eldridge’s view. *541 Eldridge managed to avoid the truck by passing it on the left, but Lauder struck the rear of the truck. The testimony is in dispute as to whether Lauder swerved partially into the fast lane to avoid the truck, and still contacted it, or whether he stayed completely within his own lane and hit it directly from behind. Jobe’s 1959 Impala was traveling southbound on the…