Opinion
May 26, 1987
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Lerner, J.).
Ordered that the order is affirmed, with one bill of costs payable to the respondents appearing separately and filing separate briefs.
The plaintiff's status was in the nature of a "rescuer" following an automobile accident at or near the intersection of the Cross Island and Southern State Parkways. It is undisputed that the vehicles operated by the defendants Cerrito and Compos collided, and that the Cerrito vehicle, at some point, overturned. The plaintiff, an off-duty emergency medical specialist, stopped to assist, and, in the course of rendering assistance to the occupants of the overturned Cerrito vehicle, he was struck by a third vehicle driven by the defendant Washington.
The deposition testimony of the defendants Compos and Cerrito is inconsistent with regard to the manner in which their vehicles happened to collide. However, Compos conceded in his examination before trial that he was operating his car at a speed of 60 to 65 miles per hour at the time of the occurrence. Either as a result of the collision between the Compos and Cerrito vehicles or prior to the collision, the Cerrito vehicle, containing other occupants, overturned in the path of oncoming traffic.
Since competing inferences may reasonably be drawn as to whether Compos's conduct constituted negligence, the application for summary judgment was properly denied (see, Myers v. Fir Cab Corp., 64 N.Y.2d 806). Moreover, with regard to proximate cause, a wrongdoer is responsible for the injuries of a rescuer; and although he "may not have foreseen the coming of a deliverer [h]e is accountable as if he had" (Wagner v. International Ry. Co., 232 N.Y. 176, 180; see also, Rodriguez v. New York State Thruway Auth., 82 A.D.2d 853, 854). Weinstein, J.P., Eiber, Spatt and Sullivan, JJ., concur.