People v. Graves

CURTIS, J.

The appellant was found guilty of the violation of section 141 of the Motor Vehicle Act (Stats. 1923, p. 562). The court instructed the jury as follows: “The duty imposed upon a driver of an automobile which strikes a person to stop, render assistance, and furnish the information required by the law is a duty which he must perform in all cases, and it is immaterial whether such accident was caused by the carelessness of such driver, the carelessness of the person struck, or of both, or was an unavoidable accident. Such duty arises whenever such a collision occurs.” Appellant objects to this instruction on account of the presence therein of the words' “in all cases,” and claims that in giving this instruction the court instructed the jury that it was the duty of the driver of an automobile which strikes a person to stop and perform the acts enumerated in the above section of the Motor Vehicle Act, even though he had no knowledge that he had struck such person. While the instruction is no broader than the section itself, it is inconceivable to us that the legislature ever intended to make the provisions of this section applicable to a person who was ignorant of the fact that the automobile which he was driving had struck another person. And it is with equal difficulty that we can bring our minds to believe that any jury would convict an accused of the violation of the provisions of said section, without being assured to a certainty that he had actual knowledge that his machine had struck a person, or had collided Avith another automobile, even under an instruction of the court as broad as that given in this case. If we concede that the instruction is susceptible of the construction claimed for it by appellant, we are unable to believe that the jury so construed it or based their verdict upon any such construction. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the appellant was not in any way injured by the giving of this instruction.

[418]

It is next contended that the court erred in admitting in evidence a bottle of wine, wrhich, some of the witnesses testified, had been thrown from appellant’s machine shortly after the accident. There was ample evidence to show that the appellant and the other occupants of the machine in which he was riding at the time of the accident, had indulged freely in intoxicating liquors just prior to the collision. This evidence was proper to show the condition of appellant and his companions at the time their machine struck the deceased, and the admission of the bottle of wine, thrown from appellant’s car, simply corroborated the other evidence upon this subject, and was therefore proper.