As previously written, the Court of Appeals' decision in Kabir v. County of Monroe1 drastically undercut the protection afforded to emergency responders under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law §1104. Kabir relied on a technical and literal interpretation of the statute and held that emergency responders are entitled to the protections afforded by VTL 1104(e)'s "reckless disregard standard" only where the emergency responder is engaged in one of the acts enumerated in 1104(b), such as (1) stopping, standing or parking; (2) proceeding past a red light, stop sign or flashing red signal; (3) exceeding the posted speed limit; or (4) disregarding regulations governing direction of movement or turning in specified directions. For all other actions, the emergency responder would only be held to a negligence standard.
This reasoning would give greater protection to an emergency responder who was speeding (the reckless disregard standard) as opposed to one who was obeying the speed limit (negligence). Kabir not only ignored the intent behind VTL 1104, but left future courts to deal with the task of applying an unworkable standard certain to lead to anomalous results, just as the dissent predicted.
Post-'Kabir' Decisions
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