Garabedian v. Superior Court

McCOMB, J. Petitioner seeks a writ of prohibition commanding the Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco to dismiss an information charging him with a violation of section 20001 of the Vehicle Code.

Section 20001 of the Vehicle Code reads: “The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to any person, other than himself, or death of any person shall immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident and shall fulfill the requirements of Sections 20003 and 20004, and any person failing to stop or to comply with the requirements under such circumstances is guilty of a public offense and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than one year nor more than five years or in the county jail for not to exceed one year or by fine of not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) or by both.”

At the time of his arraignment petitioner moved to have the information set aside on the ground that he had been held to answer without reasonable or probable cause. The trial court denied the motion.

The question for us to determine is whether there was any evidence, direct or indirect, at the preliminary hearing, of an essential element or ingredient of the offense charged, to-wit, whether petitioner knew he had had an automobile, accident.

This question must be answered in the negative. John Ratio testified that he was working on Market Street in front of Manning’s Coffee Shop about 2:30 in the morning of July-27, 1962. The witness was on the north side of Market Street, west of the Montgomery Street intersection. He heard a noise or thud, turned, and saw a man lying on the street next to a westbound automobile. He identified the car as a 1952 or 1953 dark green Buick. He did not see the vehicle strike the pedestrian.

,,The pedestrian was injured. The witness saw a part of! [126]the license number of the vehicle and told it to a taxi driver, who wrote it down for him. He thereafter gave. it to the police or to the ambulance driver.

Officer Lindgren, of the Accident Investigation Bureau of the San Francisco Police Department, testified that he obtained from Mr. ¡Ratio three letters and two digits of the license number of the, Buick. He reported this information to his headquarters and was subsequently given petitioner’s name and address.