[Download] "People State New York v. Roy Petterson" by Supreme Court of New York " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: People State New York v. Roy Petterson
- Author : Supreme Court of New York
- Release Date : January 16, 1984
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 64 KB
Description
Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Suffolk County (Cacciabaudo, J.), rendered January 6, 1983, convicting him of two counts of leaving the scene of an incident without reporting (Vehicle and Traffic Law, § 600, subd 2), upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. para. Judgment affirmed. This case is remitted to the County Court, Suffolk County, for further proceedings pursuant to CPL 460.50 (subd 5). para. Sometime after midnight of February 21, 1982, defendant, returning home from a bar in Commack, struck and killed a 16-year-old boy and severely injured another 16-year-old boy. Later that day, police officers found defendants truck and placed defendant under arrest. Although it appears that the defendant was intoxicated at the time of the collision, the People were apparently unable to prove that fact and, therefore, charged him with leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, as a felony (Vehicle and Traffic Law, § 600, subd 2). para. On this appeal, defendant argues, inter alia, that his guilt was not established beyond a reasonable doubt, because the evidence did not show that he caused injury or that he knew or had cause to know that injuries were sustained by his victims, and that it was impermissible to amend the indictment to correct a ministerial defect. We affirm. para. Examination of the record contains overwhelming evidence that the defendant left the scene without complying with the requisites of section 600 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law. Uncontradicted testimony established that the defendant stopped his truck following the impact, backed up, exited, walked back toward the victims, and, from an unobstructed well-illuminated view, stared at the dead boys body. para. Contrary to defendants claim, there is no requirement that the People establish proximate causation in accordance with the principles applicable to the law of torts and homicides. The statute "requires every motor vehicle operator, whether culpable or not, involved in an accident causing * * * personal injury, to remain at the scene of the accident" (People v Samuel, 29 N.Y.2d 252, 258; emphasis supplied). In other words, the mere occurrence of an injury to another person is sufficient to trigger the statutory provisions, irrespective of whether the motorist is at fault (see Campbell v Westmoreland Farm, 403 F2d 939, 941; Damelio v Machi, 192 Misc 298, 300; People v Orr, 138 Misc 535, 536). para. People v Berger (61 Misc. 2d 120 [App Term]), assuming that it was correctly decided, [103 A.D.2d 811 Page 812]