Court Opinion

ID: 9565265
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:17:47.60085+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:30.656553
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in all divisions of the opinion except Division 5. I agree that there was evidence of such action on the part of Morris that the jury could find it came within the meaning of OCGA § 40-6-203 (a) (1) (I). This is not to say that a driver does not have an affirmative duty to “stop” rather than just to “slow down,” at a stop sign. OCGA § 40-6-72 (b). Compare OCGA § 40-6-72 (c). The negative duty in OCGA § 40-6-203 (a) (1) is to not stop, because of the obstruction to oncoming traffic, and this duty embraces so closely approximating a full stop that it amounts to the same hazard. In respect to the scope of the statute prohibiting stopping, here under review, the most analogous case is Garrett v. Brannen, 164 Ga. App. 10 (2) (296 SE2d 205) (1982), overruled in another regard, Chadwick v. Miller, 169 Ga. App. 338, 344 (312 SE2d 835) (1983). A charge on what is now OCGA § 40-6-203 (a) (1) was found not to be error; there was evidence that one of the vehicles “slowed down or stopped . . . applied [the] brakes and stopped . . . suddenly.”
In Blake v. Continental Southeastern Lines, 161 Ga. App. 869 (289 SE2d 551) (1982), and 168 Ga. App. 718 (309 SE2d 829) (1983), the stopping prohibited by OCGA § 40-6-203 related to the bus actually coming to a stop on the paved shoulder, where it remained for a period of time, not to the act of returning to the highway and reaching an acceleration speed of 30 mph. The question with regard to the unauthorized stop on the shoulder (i.e., not for an emergency) was whether it was a proximate cause of the collision which occurred after the bus had reentered the highway. It was not disputed that the bus had been fully stopped.
Thus that case does not stand for the proposition that “stop” includes starting up and achieving movement again or, as in this case, slowing down to a stop.