I was in an accident with a police car! July 10, 2009

Silive is reporting that 2 police officers were injured in a car accident while responding to a 911 call. Apparently, as the police were responding to the call, travelling along Hylan Boulevard, another car, driving in the opposite direction, was attempting to make a left turn and hit the drivers door of the police car, sending both cars spinning. The article makes special note that the “lights and sirens” were on at the time of the accident. You may wonder why that fact is so prominently mentioned, especially if you are the driver of the other car.  You may be waking up this morning and have a totally different version of how the accident happened, questioning if the police actually had their lights and sirens on.

In New York, the law allows police to speed, run red lights and stop signs and even drive on the opposite side of the street as long as they are responding to a call with their lights and siren’s on. If they did not have their lights and sirens on and an accident happened, they would be negligent, just like you or I would be if we ran a stopsign. But the law allows police officers to be negligent, just not reckless.

Section 1104 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law relieves the driver of a police car from the duty to obey the otherwise-applicable rules and regulations governing the movement of vehicles, but does not relieve the driver from “the consequences of his reckless disregard for the safety of others.” In a personal injury suit against the City of New York, you would need to prove that the police officer was reckless – meaning that the police officer would have to commit an act knowing that harm would follow and not care about the outcome. You would think that would be easy.

Unfortunately, the courts favor to the police officer. In a recent case, a police officer responding to an emergency failed to stop at a stop sign and entered an intersection with a four-lane highway. His view of the traffic was obstructed and he failed to see an oncoming vehicle, resulting in a collision. The courts said that the police officer “enjoyed a qualified privilege pursuant to Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1104 which permitted him to disregard the ordinary rules of prudent and responsible driving.” Even though he couldn’t see other cars, the court said that the officer’s conduct did not amount to reckless disregard for the safety of others.

On Staten Island, we see too frequently police cars going through stops signs and red lights, not because they are responding to an emergency but simply because they feel they don’t have to wait like you or I. With the courts in their favor, and no one to police them, its just another danger that Staten Island residents have to be on the lookout for.

Frank Dito is a New York Personal Injury attorney specializing in New York real estate law , New York business law, and New York franchise law. You can visit his Law Firm Decker, Decker, Dito and Internicola website by clicking here, download his FREE New York Car Insurance book, or call him at 718-979-4300 or 1-800-310-5520 for a free case analysis.

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