People v. Traughber
Michigan Supreme Court
439 N.W.2d 231 (1989)
Truck driver David Traughber (defendant), driving at night with a blood-alcohol level around .04-.05, suddenly saw a large metal sign lying in his lane and swerved left to avoid it; an oncoming vehicle, not realizing he was already returning to his own lane, swerved as well, and the two vehicles collided head-on, killing a passenger in the other car. The trial judge, reasoning that Traughber's trucking experience should have led him to a better choice than swerving into the oncoming lane, convicted him of negligent homicide, and the court of appeals affirmed; Traughber argued on further appeal that the judge improperly held him to a heightened, expertise-based standard rather than that of an ordinary reasonable person.
Whether a person can be held criminally responsible for a death from ordinary negligence in operating a vehicle when his instinctive reaction in a genuine emergency later turns out, in hindsight, to have been the wrong choice.