Damages for pre-impact terror are a species of emotional distress damages that may be awarded in personal injury actions in which victims, prior to sustaining severe or fatal physical injuries, are aware of the danger and that it will likely result in them being severely or fatally injured. Typically, pre-impact terror damages have been sought in cases in which the victims  died from their injuries, although they are not necessarily limited to that circumstance. 

Owing to the nature of these damages, which contemplates some form of "impact" that inflicts physical injuries on the victim, they are not typical in medical malpractice actions. That is not to say they can never apply in such actions, but they would have to involve factual scenarios in which the malpractice caused a physical injury, the danger of which the patient was aware prior to being injured. The Second Department recently addressed the viability of an award for pre-impact terror in a medical malpractice action in Molina v. Goldberg, ___ A.D.3d ___, 215 N.Y.S.3d 434 (2nd Dept. 2024), and determined that it was unavailable on the facts of that case.  That decision is the subject of this column.