I have participated in two motorcycle First Aid workshops this year and found a general lack of understanding, even among instructors, about a person’s liability for rendering First Aid in emergency situations. PA has a Good Samaritan Law. This law provides that:
(a) Any person, including an emergency response provider, whether or not trained to practice medicine, who in good faith renders emergency care, treatment, first aid or rescue at the scene of an emergency event or crime or who moves the person receiving such care, first aid or rescue to a hospital or other place of medical care shall not be liable for any civil damages as a result of rendering such care, except in any act or omission intentionally designed to harm or any grossly negligent acts or omissions which result in harm to the person receiving emergency care or being moved to a hospital or other place of medical care.
(c.) this section shall not relieve a driver of a vehicle, including an ambulance or other emergency rescue vehicle, from liability arising from an operation or use of such vehicle pursuant to subsection (a).
42 Pa. C.S. § 8332
To summarize, a Good Samaritan can be any person who renders emergency care, treatment, first aid, or rescue at the scene of an emergency event or crime, or who moves the victim to a hospital or other place of medical care. As long as the emergency care is done in good faith, the Good Samaritan is protected from civil damages except for any act or omission intentionally designed to harm or for any grossly negligent acts or omissions which result in harm, or as set forth in subsection (c) above.
Gross negligence is sometimes referred to as, “less care than even a careless person would exercise.”
-Richard E. Freeburn, Esq.
