Emergency vehicles, such as ambulances, fire trucks and police cars, are expected to respond with all possible speed when summoned to an urgent situation. To assist such vehicles in these emergency pursuits, Vehicle and Traffic Law §1104 was enacted to provide a qualified exemption from certain traffic laws to the operators of these vehicles when responding to an emergency, provided certain procedures are followed. This statute also provides for a reduced standard of care under such circumstances in that “reckless disregard” must be shown rather than ordinary negligence. However, the right-of-way granted to emergency vehicles is not absolute. In assessing liability in these cases, a key question is whether the emergency vehicle was operated in compliance with the applicable standard of care or did the vehicle operator exceed his statutory latitude such that liability could be imposed for his offending acts?

Vehicle and Traffic Law §1104 has been the subject of several major Court of Appeals decisions. In the seminal case, Saarinen v. Kerr, 84 N.Y.2d 494, 620 N.Y.S.2d 297 (1994), the Court of Appeals found that emergency operators within the scope of this statute were subject to the standard of care of “reckless disregard for the safety of others” rather than “due care,” a showing associated with ordinary negligence.

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