People v. Hernandez

BARNARD, P. J.

The defendant was charged with driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, in violation of section 501 of the Vehicle Code. After a trial, he was found guilty by the court sitting without a jury, and he appeals from the judgment.

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This action resulted from a collision which occurred about 10 p. m. on June 7, 1952, on Highway 99. At the point involved, this was a divided highway with two traffic lanes each way. The eastbound lanes were separated from the westbound lanes by “22 feet of dirt island and a difference in elevation” of 6 feet. At the time in question a sheriff’s ear, driven by a deputy and with two passengers, was proceeding easterly in the southerly lane. A Ford car, which was proceeding east in the same lane about 25 feet ahead of the sheriff’s car, suddenly swerved to the left to avoid a Plymouth car which was coming downgrade traveling west on the eastbound lanes. The Plymouth car sideswiped the Ford car and ran head-on into the sheriff’s ear, injuring its three occupants. The sheriff’s car and the Plymouth car stopped within 6 inches of each other, and the Ford ear stopped on the island between the two roads.

Several officers arrived at the scene shortly afterward, and the only occupant of the Plymouth car was taken in an ambulance to the county hospital. There was convincing evidence that the defendant was driving the Plymouth ear at the time and that he was intoxicated. The driver of the sheriff’s car and the driver of the Ford car, within two minutes after the accident, looked into the Plymouth car and saw only one person. This person was on the driver’s side, under the steering wheel, with the upper part of his body lying over toward the right side. They did not see anyone leave that car. Two officers who removed the man from the Plymouth car testified positively that the defendant was the man they took from the car. One testified that he appeared to be unconscious, and the other testified that he appeared to be in a daze. One testified that he smelled the defendant’s breath at that time and that it was “very strong alcoholic.” The other officer testified that he got in the ambulance with the defendant and helped to hold the stretcher in position, and that en route to the hospital the defendant was groggy, “smelled of alcohol and mumbled and singing.” Two highway patrol officers saw the defendant at the county hospital about midnight and testified that his breath was alcoholic; that there was a strong odor of alcohol; that his speech was incoherent; that it was hard to understand him; and that he was “wild and hollering” at times. Based on their experience in seeing people under the influence of liquor one expressed the opinion that he was drunk, and the other that he was under the influence of intoxicating liquor.