People v. Montes

WOOD (Parker), J.

Defendant was convicted of the crime of negligent homicide in violation of section 500 of the Vehicle Code. Trial by jury was waived. He appeals from the judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

About 11 p. m. on May 8, 1942, defendant was driving an automobile west on Compton Avenue, and Boyd R. Brady, the decedent, was driving an automobile south on Prairie Avenue, in Los Angeles County. A boulevard stop sign, the reflector type “with little pieces of glass through . . . the word ‘stop,’ ” duly erected according to law at the northeast corner of the intersection of said avenues, required the drivers of automobiles approaching said intersection from the east on Compton Avenue to stop before entering Prairie Avenue. As the proximate result of injuries caused by a collision in the intersection between the two automobiles, Boyd R. Brady died on May 9, 1942.

A witness called by plaintiff testified that he was driving an automobile east on Compton Avenue and when he first saw defendant’s automobile it was coming toward him on Compton Avenue on the other side of the intersection of Prairie and Compton Avenues; that he first saw decedent’s automobile when it was on Prairie Avenue about 250 or 300 feet north of the intersection; that both automobiles were within his vision from the time he first saw them until the impact; that there was no noticeable unusual rate of speed of either automobile, and he could not determine any slackening of speed by either automobile; that he could not determine whether defendant made a boulevard stop because it was night and defendant’s automobile was coming toward him and he (the witness) was “having a pretty fair set of headlights,” coming toward him and he was dividing his attention between the two automobiles; that the impact' occurred in the intersection “right where the two cars would meet if they were traveling on their own designated sides of the streets”; that the two cars were lying on their sides after the collision; that defendant had “quite a bump on

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top of the head,” and a little blood was coming from above his temple; and that defendant said, “the other car did' not make the stop, ’ ’ or something like that.

A person, called as a witness by plaintiff, who was in a nearby house at the time of the collision, testified that he did not see the collision, but he was there immediately afterward; that decedent’s automobile was lying on the boulevard stop sign which had been “up a few minutes before” on the southwest corner of the intersection; that decedent was hanging by his head in the door of his car; that the boulevard stop signs on the northeast and southwest corners were the reflector type signs; and that the girl who was with the decedent was on the bottom of the ear.