Court Opinion

ID: 9808299
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:33:21.00347+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:10:50.000435
License: Public Domain

BaeNHIll, J.,
concurring: We may not concern ourselves about the ■distance the vehicle traveled on the public highway, if at all. If defendant, while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, put the vehicle in 'motion and operated it for any distance on any part of a highway in this State, he is guilty as charged. The one question presented is as to whether a sidewalk is a part of a highway within the meaning of G.S. ■20-138.
Decision is made to rest on the definition of “Street and Highway” contained in the statute which created the offense for which defendant was tried. G.S. 20-38 (cc). This is as it should be, for that definition ■is controlling.
But there is nothing unusual or exceptional about the meaning thus accorded the term. It is generally construed to include sidewalks within the bounds of a public way.
A street is a public highway in an urban community, and a sidewalk is a walkway along the margin of a street or other highway, designed .and prepared for pedestrians. 25 A.J. 343.
*364All portions of a public street from side to side and end to end are for the public use in the appropriate and proper method. Oliver v. Raleigh, 212 N.C. 465, 193 S.E. 853; Wood v. Telephone Co., 228 N.C. 605, 46 S.E. 2d 717.
“The courts have universally held that a street includes the roadway, or traveled portion, and sidewalks.” Willis v. New Bern, 191 N.C. 507, 132 S.E. 286. “The sidewalk is simply a part of the street which the town authorities have set apart for the use of pedestrians.” Hester v. Traction Co., 138 N.C. 288; Ham v. Durham, 205 N.C. 107, 170 S.E. 137; 25 A.J. 343.
Thus the grass plot between the curb and sidewalk, Gettys v. Marion, 218 N.C. 266, 10 S.E. 2d 799, and a parkway in the center, Spicer v. Goldsboro, 226 N.C. 557, 39 S.E. 2d 526, are parts of the street.
In respect to the duty of a municipality (1) to keep its streets free from obstructions and in proper repair, and (2) to furnish adequate lights, we have consistently held that the term “street” includes sidewalks. Ham v. Durham, supra; Wall v. Asheville, 219 N.C. 163 13 S.E. 2d 260; Bunch v. Edenton, 90 N.C. 431; Russell v. Monroe, 116 N.C. 720; Wolfe v. Pearson, 114 N.C. 621; Neal v. Marion, 129 N.C. 345; Radford v. Asheville, 219 N.C. 185, 13 S.E. 2d 256; Waters v. Belhaven, 222 N. C. 20, 21 S.E. 2d 840; and other cases too numerous to cite.
“The abutting proprietor has no more right in the sidewalk than in the roadway. His rights are simply that the street (including roadway and sidewalk) shall not be closed or obstructed so as to impair ingress or egress to his lot by himself and those whom he invites there for trade or other purposes.” Hester v. Traction Co., supra; Ham v. Durham, supra.
When he and those whom he invites to visit his premises exercise this right of ingress and egress, they pass from private property to public way at the property line, and the right to use the public way is one conferred by the public. It is the use of this right the statute seeks to regulate.
Motorists are afforded the right to operate their vehicles, not only along and upon the center portion of the highway set apart primarily for vehicular traffic, but also across the sidewalk at designated points for the purpose of entering or passing from private alleys, private driveways, garages, filling stations, and the like.
Intersections and private or semiprivate entrances are used by both the motorist and the pedestrian. These are the real danger points. People who use them, as well as those who use the vehicular trafile lane, are protected against the peril created by the drunken driver.
To hold otherwise would be to say that an intoxicated person may operate his motor vehicle down a crowded sidewalk with impunity in so far as the Motor Yehiele Law is concerned. The Legislature never so *365intended and tbe language used in the statute does not require such a narrow interpretation of the term “highway.” The court below correctly concluded that it includes sidewalks.