By MICHAEL VIRTANEN
Associated Press

ALBANY - New York's top court ruled Thursday that a police officer's sudden slowdown on a service road along the Long Island Expressway heightened the risk of rear-end collisions, upholding a jury finding that a subsequent crash was half his fault.

The Court of Appeals acknowledged that hitting the rear of a stopped vehicle is well-established as negligence by the oncoming driver, but that didn't absolve Suffolk County officer Lee Weidl of liability.

"Clearly, Officer Weidl's actions created a foreseeable danger that vehicles would have to brake aggressively in an effort to avoid the lane obstruction created by his vehicle, thereby increasing the risk of rear-end collisions," the seven judges unanimously concluded.

They reversed a midlevel court, sending the case back for consideration of other appeal issues.

"This really changes the existing law and the potential responsibility of vehicles that cause a chain-reaction accident," said attorney Kenneth Shapiro, who represented injured driver Pamela Tutrani at trial and on appeal. "The Court of Appeals doesn't hear too many motor-vehicle cases. I'm sure it's a case that's going to be cited for a long time."

According to the court, Weidl changed lanes and slowed suddenly from 40 mph to 1 or 2 mph on the service road during morning rush hour in March 2003 when he spotted a disabled vehicle just ahead on the shoulder. Tutrani slammed on her brakes, stopping short of Weidl's cruiser by half a car length, but Darlene Maldonado's vehicle rear-ended Tutrani's.

Tutrani was injured and sued. A jury in Suffolk County decided that Weidl's reckless conduct and Maldonado's negligence were both substantial factors, holding each 50 percent at fault. Tutrani was awarded $200,000 for past pain and suffering.

The crash aggravated a previous spinal injury and required Tutrani to get shoulder surgery, Shapiro said. She hasn't worked since.

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, citing precedents, reversed the judgment against Weidl, noting that Tutrani was able to stop without hitting Weidl's police car, so Weidl was not the cause of Maldonado's failure to stop.

The Court of Appeals disagreed.

"Officer Weidl abruptly slowed his vehicle to a near stop in a travel lane of a busy highway where vehicles could reasonably expect that traffic would continue unimpeded," the court said. "Thus, the jury could have rationally found, as it did here, that his conduct ‘set into motion an eminently foreseeable chain of events that resulted in the collision.' "

Calls to the attorney for Suffolk County were not immediately returned.