Wineinger

Ken Wineinger, age 17, was one of two passengers in a Toyota Land Cruiser being driven by another 17 year old, defendant and respondent Eric Goodman, when the vehicle careened over a cliff in a residential housing tract. Wineinger was killed. The tract was then being *1006 developed by Bear Brand Ranch and O. Hill Co., the owners and general contractors. Parrott & Wright Construction Co. was the grading and paving contractor responsible for completion of the streets.

Wineinger’s heirs were awarded a $638,504 judgment in the ensuing wrongful death action. The jury determined driver Goodman was 20 percent negligent and the developer defendants 80 percent responsible for the accident. 1 The developer defendants have appealed, complaining of instructional and evidentiary errors and an excessive verdict. The plaintiffs have not appeared in this court, but their position has essentially been presented by Goodman, who submitted a respondent’s brief.

I

While returning from a visit to a local shopping center at approximately 8 p.m. on November 8, 1982, Goodman drove two friends, decedent Wineinger and Ray John Rehmeier, in his Toyota Land Cruiser onto a street known as Morning…