102 Ga. App. 391 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1960
1. “One indicted for involuntary manslaughter in the commission of various specified unlawful acts because of a death resulting from an automobile collision may be convicted, if the evidence so warrants, of involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act without due caution and circumspection.” Guthrie v. State, 92 Ga. App. 62 (1) (87 S. E. 2d 648). See also Croker v. State, 57 Ga. App. 895 (197 S. E. 92); Kelly v. State, 63 Ga. App. 231 (10 S. E. 2d 417); Stone v. State, 78 Ga. App. 555 (51 S. E. 2d 578); Hardrick v. State, 98 Ga. App. 649 (106 S. E. 2d 342). It follows that this defendant, on an indictment charging him with manslaughter in the commission of the unlawful acts of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants, exceeding the speed limit, failing to drive on his right half of the roadway, and failing to yield one-half of the roadway to a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction, might be convicted of manslaughter in the commission of a
2. We know of no way in which an automobile can be operated by a person while under the influence of intoxicants in a lawful manner, and the same would in most, if not all, cases, be true as to the act of driving a vehicle in excess of the speed limit. It thus remains to be seen whether the other two acts charged, that is, driving on the left of the roadway and failing to yield the right half to a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction in violation of stated city ordinances, are acts which might be done lawfully under certain circumstances, and, if so, whether there is any evidence to sustain the finding that they were nevertheless done in a criminally negligent manner. It is undisputed that the defendant, after rounding a curve on a rainy night, went into the left traffic lane at an intersection and collided head on with an oncoming vehicle. The defendant, however, denied that he was intoxicated, denied that he was exceeding the speed limit, and stated that the reason for the collision was as follows: as he rounded the curve, the oncoming vehicle appeared “not completely on his side of the road, it appearing to me that he was fixing to turn left into the southern section of Lindridge Avenue or swinging out to make the right-hand section of Lindridge Avenue.” The defendant contended that this constituted an emergency; that he thought the vehicle was going to turn to its left in front of him; that he turned out to the left to avoid colliding with it and then saw it was not turning to the left, but that, due to the slickness of the road, he was unable to- bring his own vehicle back to its right-hand side of the road in time to avoid the collision. In Croker v. State, 57 Ga. App. 895, 900, supra, a charge was approved to the effect that “the defendant would be justified in turning to- the left of the road in order to avoid a collision where the defendant did not unlawfully bring about the necessity for so doing.” The jury here was authorized to believe the defendant’s statement that
Judgment affirmed.