People v. Bull

BISHOP, P. J.

The defendant was convicted on a charge of failing to yield the right of way upon making a left turn at an intersection. The complaint failed to state a public offense and the evidence did not show that a public offense had been committed. The consequence, of course, is a reversal of the judgment against the defendant.

*Supp. 861

The facts are not in dispute. The defendant, southbound in the most easterly of the three southbound lanes on Fairfax Avenue (Los Angeles City) was halted by a red traffic light while “straddling the cross walk” on the north side of the intersection of Fairfax with Beverly Boulevard. During the period that the red light controlled the traffic, three cars, headed north, filled the three lanes on the side of Beverly, opposite the defendant and back of the crosswalk. When the red light changed to green the defendant put his car in motion and was in the intersection before any of the cars opposite him began to move. Indeed, it was not made to appear that any of them moved before the defendant had completed his turn and was on his way out of the intersection.

The statutory law upon which the prosecution depends is subsection (a) of section 551, Vehicle Code, providing: “The driver of a vehicle within an intersection intending to turn to the left shall yield the right of way to any vehicle

approaching

from the opposite direction which is within the intersection or so close thereto as to constitute an immediate hazard.” [The emphasis is ours.] It may be argued that the words “approaching from the opposite direction” should be understood as applying only to a car “which is within the intersection,” so that the correlation of ideas is: “any vehicle (1) approaching from the opposite direction which is within the intersection or (2) so close thereto as to constitute an immediate hazard.” Were this an acceptable interpretation we would affirm the judgment, for we entertain no doubt that the trial court would have been warranted in concluding that the three cars awaiting the “go” signal constituted an immediate hazard. The more natural and the correct reading of the provision, we submit, is this: “any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction which (1) is within the intersection or (2) so close thereto as to constitute an immediate hazard.” Thus read, section 551 deals with vehicles approaching from the opposite direction, and so supplements section 550, which treats of vehicles entering from different highways and section 552, concerned with cars entering an intersection from a through highway.