Abood v. Hospital Ambulance Service, Inc.

This appeal requires us to pass upon a question of public importance concerning right-of-way privileges granted by statute to ambulances being driven as emergency vehicles.

An ambulance owned by the defendant, Hospital Ambulance Service, Inc., answering an emergency call 1 , collided with another vehicle at the traffic-controlled intersection of '7th Avenue and 3rd Street in. Brooklyn. At the time of the accident, the red turret light of the ambulance was on, but no siren was sounded.

The jury was instructed that the defendant’s failure to use or equip its ambulance with a siren or other device…