Shehab v. Powers, 127 A.D.3d 955, 7 N.Y.S.3d 359, 2015 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3093 (2015)

The emergency doctrine does not apply to rear-end collisions.

The plaintiff argued the defendant suddenly stopped, whereas the defendant argued he slowed down at a reasonable rate when approaching the intersection. The end result was a rear-rend collision. The court found that, regardless of the dispute as to the plaintiff’s factual allegations, the Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1129(a) requires drivers to leave a reasonable distance between vehicles in front of them. Thus, the occurrence was one of a common traffic matter, not a reaction to an emergency.

 

Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2018

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