George Sutherland

“ Rodgers, supra, has discussed the distinction between traffic offenses of a petty character, subject to summary proceedings without indictment and trial by jury, and those of a serious character, amounting to public nuisances indictable at common law; and its examination of the subject makes clear that the offense now under review is of the latter character.
An automobile is, potentially, a dangerous instrumentality, as the appalling number of fatalities brought about every day by its operation bear distressing witness. ”

“ It will be seen that the respondent is not charged merely with the comparatively slight offense of exceeding the twenty-two mile limit of speed, subdivision (a) , or merely with driving recklessly, subdivision (b) (1) ; but with the grave offense of having driven at the forbidden rate of speed and recklessly, 'so as to endanger property and individuals.'
By section 165 of title 18 of the D. C. Code, outlined above, the Constitution is made the test-as, of course, it must be-to determine whether the accused be entitled to a jury trial. ”

“ To drive such an instrumentality through the public streets of a city so recklessly 'as to endanger property and individuals' is an act of such obvious depravity that to characterize it as a petty offense would be to shock the general moral sense. If the act of the respondent described in the information had culminated in the death of a human being, respondent would have been subject to indictment for some degree of felonious homicide. ”