See, e.g., O'Rourke v. MacAllister, 215 N.E.2d 794, 794 (Mass. 1966) (inattentive driver conversing with passengers struck vehicle); Higgins v. Ricca, 154 N.E.2d 356, 357 (Mass. 1958) (talkative driver with back seat passengers and resulting distraction); Harvey v. Murphy, 30 N.E.2d 854, 855-56 (Mass. 1941) (driver's failure to see hazard may have been only momentary); Lynch v. Springfield Safe Deposit Trust, Co., 200 N.E. 914, 914 (Mass. 1936) (operator failed to see the rear of a well lighted vehicle and struck it from behind); Folan v. Price, 199 N.E. 320, 321 (Mass. 1936) (driver who took eyes off the road for ten seconds not grossly negligent). Gross negligence, Defendants continue, is warranted only in more egregious situations, e.g., where the driver enters an intersection at high rate of speed, does not heed warnings of passengers and loses control of the vehicle, see Smith v. Murphy, 46 N.E.2d 401, 401-02 (Mass. 1943); Colby v. Clough, 16 N.E.2d 30, 31 (Mass. 1938), or where the driver takes his eyes off the road for thirty seconds, see Hanlon v. Westberg, 29 N.E.2d 194, 195 (Mass. 1939), or where the driver is inattentive to the road for forty seconds while the vehicle travels a distance of 2,000 feet, see Dinardi v. Herook, 105 N.E.2d 197, 198-99 (Mass. 1952). As is evident, the issues surrounding gross negligence are often quite factsensitive.

Moran's inattention, while momentary, was to be considered in connection with the continuous speed he maintained along an unfamiliar street, the possibility of danger from some obstruction to travel, and the probable effect upon the plaintiff of the beverage consumed. We think the case falls within the class illustrated by Granger v. Lovely, 302 Mass. 504, 507, Haggerty v. Sullivan, 301 Mass. 302, 304, Smith v. Murphy, 313 Mass. 68, 70, and Hallett v. Rimer, 329 Mass. 61, 62-63, and that the verdicts for the plaintiff should stand. Verdicts under leave reserved set aside.Judgments to be entered for the plaintiff on the verdicts returned by the jury.

Connell v. Harrington, 312 Mass. 436 (leaning forward, reaching to floor for four or five seconds, with one hand on wheel at forty miles an hour). Smith v. Murphy, 313 Mass. 68 (looking back at fifty miles an hour while steering sharply to left). Hastings v. Flaherty, 321 Mass. 368 (watching in mirror automobile in rear while driving fifty to sixty miles an hour on dark curving road for a mile).