Liability Concerns With Back-Up Drivers

Today’s burning question: Our department assigns full-time engineers to drive our apparatus. If one of our full-time engineers is assigned to an ambulance for the shift and the back-up engineer has an accident isn’t the department subject to a higher level of liability? What I mean is that if the full time engineer is working but the back-up engineer has an accident, wouldn’t the department have more headaches than if the primary engineer was assigned? Couldn’t an injured party claim the department was negligent because the assigned engineer is available but not working in their primary capacity?

Answer: Let me guess… you are an engineer and you don’t like working on the meat wagon? Creative argument, I will give you that!!!

The same question could be asked about a co-pilot flying a jet, a new surgeon performing an operation, or even a new officer making tactical decisions. The short answer is that while an attorney can try to make a case that the absence of the full-time engineer caused the accident, the truth is the jury will likely never be informed the driver was a back-up. As a result it likely won’t have an impact on liability.

Under our legal system, a jury is only allowed to hear relevant evidence. Evidence that is speculative and does not help the jury determine a fact in issue, is inadmissible. Before the attorney representing an accident victim can use the fact the driver was a backup, the attorney would have to prove a “but-for” relationship between the accident and the driver’s status as a back-up. In other words, the attorney would have to show that but-for the fact the driver was not a regular driver the accident would not have occurred. Speculation would not be enough to make that fact admissible.

An analogous issue comes up with regard to someone’s grade on an exam… “You got a 71 on your medic exam? What will you do if a victim’s attorney get’s hold of that fact???” Unless the victim’s attorney can prove that having a 71 on an exam caused the victim’s injuries it is irrelevant and will be inadmissible.

Good try though!!!! BTW… should a full-time engineer be prohibited from serving as an acting officer due to liability concerns associated with the back-up driver??? And then there’s the issue of whether there is too great a liability risk if the department allows a full-time driver to go on vacation or call in sick?