While the “emergency doctrine” may apply to all kinds of personal injury cases, its most common application in Buffalo personal injury lawsuits is as a defense in automobile accidents. Basically, the emergency doctrine is a claim that because the person was responding to an emergency situation, he or she is not responsible for the actions that led to an injury.
The rationale behind this doctrine is that a person facing an emergency acts without opportunity to consider the alternatives. As a result, he or she should not be held negligent if he or she acted as a reasonably prudent person would act in the same emergency. That the driver made the “wrong choice” and failed to avoid an accident does not eliminate the emergency doctrine as a defense.
The driver’s conduct, however, must still be deemed reasonable for an individual confronted with similar circumstances. As an example, a defendant has been found to be acting reasonably by the trier-of-fact under the following circumstances.
The defendant was caught in a sudden snowstorm. She braked because she thought she saw a truck stopped in her lane and slid into the shoulder of the road. As she was attempting to back up off the shoulder, she was struck by a trailer. The court found that it was reasonable for her to back up even though it turned out to be the wrong decision.
If you have suffered a personal injury and have any questions regarding this topic, please feel free to call us at 716-542-5444.
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