Court Opinion

ID: 9717031
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:56:20.683528+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:50.749650
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE NASH, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. Reckless driving involves driving “with a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 95/á, par. 11 — 503). The State’s evidence consisted solely of testimony by the complaining witness, a 20-year-old woman who had no physical impairment which might affect her ability to walk. The witness stated she began to cross the street in the middle portion of the block, not protected by a cross-walk, stop sign or traffic light, and observed an automobile at the nearest stop sign 300 feet to her left. On direct examination she testified the car approached her in the center of the narrow driving lanes of the street and when she was in the center of the street it increased its speed and she moved to get out of the way. On cross-examination, however, she testified the car left the stop sign at an average rate of speed and “we were both about the same place in the street, about the side of the street * * There was no suggestion that the automobile ever exceeded the legal speed limit and the witness estimated its maximum speed at 30 miles per hour. A finding of “recklessness” sufficient to support a reckless driving or reckless homicide conviction requires proof defendant acted with a conscious disregard for the safety of other persons or property constituting a gross deviation from the standard of care a reasonable person would exercise. (People v. Ziegler (1979), 78 Ill. App. 3d 490, 495; People v. Chambers (1972), 8 Ill. App. 3d 430, 434, aff'd sub nom. People v. Todd (1975), 59 Ill. 2d 534.) Not every act of negligence or violation of the traffic laws constitutes recklessness, as only conduct of a character evidencing an utter disregard for the safety of others meets the statutory definition. (People v. Lynn (1943), 385 Ill. 165, 168; People v. Parr (1971), 133 Ill. App. 2d 82, 87.) The evidence presented disclosed at most that a portion of defendant’s automobile may have crossed the imaginary center line of a narrow street, while he was proceeding within the speed limit from a standing position at a stop sign, and moved to within five to eight feet of a woman who had been crossing the street at a point where no cross-walk or traffic control device made it proper for her to do so. Under the circumstances, defendant’s conviction for reckless driving cannot be sustained. See People v. Burgard (1941), 377 Ill. 322; People v. Friesen (1978), 58 Ill. App. 3d 180; People v. Johnson (1975), 30 Ill. App. 3d 974; compare People v. Griffith (1978), 56 Ill. App. 3d 747. I would reverse.