## Facts

- David Traughber, a truck driver, was driving on Denton Road in rural Canton Township, Wayne County, Michigan.
- The crash occurred at approximately 12:15 a.m. on December 22, 1984, on a dark, unlighted, two-lane road with a 45 mph speed limit.
- Traughber was traveling south at about 35 mph (uncontested). Linus Parr was approaching northbound at about 45–50 mph.
- As the vehicles neared each other, Traughber suddenly saw a large metal sign (later identified as a real estate sign) lying flat in his lane.
- With only a split-second to react and with the oncoming vehicle close ahead, Traughber swerved left into the northbound lane to avoid the sign.
- Parr saw Traughber’s vehicle enter the northbound lane and swerved into the southbound lane to avoid a collision.
- As Traughber cleared the sign and began returning to the southbound lane, the vehicles collided head-on.
- Rochelle Richmond, a passenger in Parr’s car, was killed.
- Traughber was given multiple breath tests showing blood-alcohol readings of 0.05 and 0.04, below the statutory presumption of intoxication.
- In a bench trial in Wayne Circuit Court, Traughber was convicted of negligent homicide (and acquitted of operating without a license) and sentenced to probation with an initial jail term.
- Before announcing guilt, the trial judge stated the ordinary-negligence standard (what an ordinary, sensible person would do under the same circumstances), but then reasoned that, because Traughber drove trucks for a living, he should have chosen a better evasive maneuver (swerving right rather than left) and that swerving left “created an emergency.”
- The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed, and the Michigan Supreme Court granted leave to appeal.

## Issues

1. Whether the negligent-homicide information, considered together with the preliminary examination, provided sufficient notice of the specific negligent acts so the defense could prepare.
2. Whether the trial court applied the correct ordinary reasonable-person standard to Traughber’s split-second choice in a sudden roadway hazard not of his own making, or instead treated him as held to a higher standard because he was a truck driver.

## Decision

- The Michigan Supreme Court held that, although the information was not highly specific on its face, the information plus the preliminary examination gave Traughber adequate notice of the prosecution’s negligence theory.
- The Court held that the trial judge stated the correct ordinary-negligence standard but failed to apply it to the emergency conditions confronting Traughber and effectively judged him by a higher, professional-driver standard.
- The Court reversed Traughber’s negligent-homicide conviction.

## Legal Principles

- Michigan negligent homicide may be based on ordinary negligence: the failure to use the care an ordinary, sensible person would use under the same conditions and circumstances.
- In judging reasonableness, the “conditions and circumstances” include a sudden emergency not caused by the defendant; a person facing such an emergency is not judged as though there was time for calm, extended decision-making.
- A factfinder may not use hindsight to select a better option from multiple possible split-second reactions and treat the choice made as criminal negligence solely because another option might have avoided the harm.
- A defendant’s occupation (such as truck driving) does not, by itself, change the ordinary reasonable-person standard into a higher duty in a negligent-homicide case.
- A charging information that lacks detail may still satisfy notice requirements when the preliminary examination and record make the prosecution’s theory clear and the defendant is not unfairly surprised.

## Conclusion

People v. Traughber, 432 Mich. 208 (1989), holds that a negligent-homicide information can be adequate when read with the preliminary examination, but a conviction cannot stand where the trial court fails to apply the ordinary reasonable-person standard to a sudden emergency and instead bases guilt on the idea that the defendant, as a truck driver, should have made a better split-second judgment.
