This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

D drove a 1999 Ford F-350 flat-bed truck to eat breakfast. D then went to an Ace Hardware Store where he purchased 'six or seven joints of plastic pipe' that he was planning to install 'in the ground as a French drain to get water away (from the residence that he lived in).' D drove a short distance before coming to a stop at an intersection of Ritchie Industrial Park Road and U.S. Route 50. Route 50 is a four-lane divided highway. D's truck was perpendicular to Route 50 as he was stopped at the intersection. His plan was to drive straight across the two eastbound lanes and make a left turn to merge into the westbound lanes of Route 50. Before attempting to drive his truck across the eastbound lanes of Route 50, he looked to his left and noticed a semi-truck coming toward him. Believing that he had enough time to clear the two eastbound lanes in front of the semi-truck, D proceeded into the eastbound lanes of the highway. D did not see a motorcycle that was also traveling eastbound on Route 50 that was being driven by the decedent, Harry Myer, Jr. Myer was traveling in the right or slow eastbound lane of Route 50 when D's truck entered the highway. Myer applied his brakes, as evidenced by skid marks in the slow lane of Route 50, but crashed his motorcycle into the left rear quarter panel of D's truck. Myer died at the scene. Following the crash, the West Virginia State Police Officer Brewer completed a 'Uniform Traffic Crash Report' in which he determined that D 'failed to yield the right of way' at the intersection in violation of W.Va. Code § 17C-9-1. The report concluded that P did not commit any traffic violations. P filed a wrongful death action against D. An expert witness, testifying on behalf of P, testified that D caused the accident by pulling onto Route 50 and failing to yield to Myer's motorcycle; that Myer reacted within 2.8 seconds when D pulled onto the highway; and that Decedent Myer 'was alert and attentive and that he did . . . respond to the movement of the truck out into the intersection;' and D did not offer any expert testimony to rebut the plaintiff's expert's conclusion that D's act of negligently pulling onto the highway and failing to yield to oncoming traffic caused the accident. D claimed that the jury should be allowed to consider Myer's comparative fault. D argued that the motorcycle's skid marks started in the middle of the right lane and proceeded toward the 'lane-dividing lines.' However, the skid marks remained in the motorcycle's lane of travel. D argued that because the skid marks demonstrated that Myer's motorcycle traveled from the middle of the right lane toward the left edge of the right lane, the jury should decide 'whether Myer acted as a reasonably prudent person . . . by swerving left instead of right and possibly avoiding the collision.' The court granted P's motion for summary judgment on liability. D appealed.

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