Plaintiff was loading garbage into the rear of a garbage truck stopped on the side of the road when the front corner of defendant driver's vehicle struck the rear corner of the truck and plaintiff. A rear-end collision with a stopped vehicle creates a presumption that the moving vehicle's operator was negligent, so that an injured plaintiff is entitled to summary judgment on liability unless the driver of the second vehicle provides a non-negligent explanation for the collision. Defendant's explanation that he was suddenly blinded by the glare of the sun rising in the east as he was driving in that direction is insufficient to raise a non-negligent explanation for the collision. Although sun glare may contribute to an emergency situation, the ordinary circumstance of the sun's rising while a driver is heading east is not an emergency within the meaning of the doctrine. The fact that the truck was partly protruding into the driving lane was merely the occasion for the accident when defendant driver was temporarily blinded by the sun's glare.
Practice point: The grant of summary judgment was not premature since defendant did not demonstrate the need for any discovery concerning how the accident occurred.
Rodriguez v. Beal, NY Slip Op 01220 (1st Dep't February 25, 2021)
