"We have held that C.R.S. '53, 40-2-10 may be violated by a showing of three elements: (1) causing a death, (2) by driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated, (3) plus simple negligence. Espinosa v. People, 142 Colo. 96, 349 P.2d 689; Kallnback v. People, 125 Colo. 144, 242 P.2d 222. "A showing of simple negligence, therefore, was sufficient to support the conviction under the statute and this was what the court instructed the jury upon.
We have held that C.R.S., '53, 40-2-10 may be violated by a showing of three elements: (1) causing a death, (2) by driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated, (3) plus simple negligence. Espinosa v. People, 142 Colo. 96, 349 P.2d 689; Kallnback v. People, 125 Colo. 144, 242 P.2d 222. A showing of simple negligence, therefore, was sufficient to support the conviction under the statute and this was what the court instructed the jury upon.
In other words, in this connection only negligent and careless driving is required to sustain the charge. See Espinosa v. People, 142 Colo. 96, 349 P.2d 689; Kallenbach v. People, 125 Colo. 144, 242 P.2d 222; and Rinehart v. People, 105 Colo. 123, 95 P.2d 10. Recapitulating, then, gross or criminal negligence, i.e., wilful and wanton misconduct, is a necessary and material element in a charge of involuntary manslaughter, but such is not a necessary element in the crime defined in C.R.S. 1963, 40-2-10.
Sutherland, Statutory Construction, 3rd Ed., Vol. 2, Sec. 5209. Espinoza v. People, 1960, 142 Colo. 96, 349 P.2d 689, 691; also see 33 Rocky Mountain Law Review 425 (1961). It seems evident that our legislature has concluded that the time has now come when we must recognize that any kind of vehicular negligence, mingled with gas and booze, produces a lethal mixture that, if it cause death, should penalize to a greater degree than before, the mobile, tipsy vehicle-operating brew-master, in order to bring to a screeching halt the mounting holocaust daily dedicated to traffic fatalities.
Decisions from other states also have long "'recognize[d] the general rule, too well settled to require citation to authorities, that where the means by which a crime may be committed are set forth in the statute in the disjunctive, they should be alleged in the information in the conjunctive.'"Espinoza v. People, 349 P.2d 689, 690 (Colo. 1960) (citation omitted).