Vince Sullivan was convicted of being drunk on a public road, in violation of section 442 of tbe Penal Code. The evidence shows that the accused was driving rapidly and recklessly along a public road, on a Sunday and near a church; that he had his head down and the reins loose on the dashboard; that he reeled in his buggy and fell over the dashboard; that he met five or six persons who were also driving along the road, and that he gave none of these people any part of the road, and came very near running into all of them; that one vehicle, occupied by two men and a lady, had to be driven clear off the road to escape being run over by the defendant; that he talked in a mumbling voice,
In the Davis case the only evidence as to the drunkenness of the accused was that he was “driving a horse very rapidly along the public road, and that as his horse would run he reeled in the buggy.” There is no evidence whatever that he disturbed, discommoded, or frightened any person or persons in the road by reckless, dangerous, and boisterous driving. In fact, the only witness who testified for the prosecution was, as the record shows, “on his veranda, thirty yards from the road, at the time the accused passed,” and Chief Judge Bussell summed up the opinion in that case as follows: “In the present case, the only allegation of the indictment which is supported by proof is that the drunkenness of the accused upon the Marietta and Cumming road was manifested by his running his horse, and we can not hold that the mere running of a horse is indecent conduct.”
We think that the facts in the instant case, as set out above, which show that the accused was driving upon a public road, on a Sabbath day and near a church, in such a reckless, unseemly, and dangerous manner that many other persons driving upon that road were annoyed, obstructed, and frightened by him, some of them even being obliged to turn entirely out of the road to avoid being
In our opinion, under the facts of this case, it was clearly within the province of the jury to say whether or not the conduct of the accused was “boisterousness,” or was “indecent,” within the meaning of the statute. . Judgment affirmed.
