Friend's rescue bid 'left crash victim paralysed'

A woman accused of turning her friend into a paraplegic by pulling her out of a wrecked car “like a rag doll” may not be protected by California’s Good Samaritan law, a court has ruled.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote in a decision that the Good Samaritan law only protected people from liability if they were administering emergency medical care. The perceived danger of remaining in the wrecked car was not “medical”, the court said.

Lawyer Robert Hutchinson, who represents Alexandra Van Horn, says the state’s Samaritan law does not require people to render aid. But if they do, he says, they must act reasonably.

Van Horn was in the front passenger seat of a car that slammed into a lamp-post at 45mph in 2004, according to the negligence lawsuit filed against Lisa Torti.

Torti, a passenger in a car behind the vehicle, said she placed one arm under Van Horn’s legs and the other behind her neck to lift her out of the car. But Van Horn claims Torti grabbed her by the arm and pulled her from the car “like a rag doll”. She injured a vertebrae and had a lacerated liver.

Court documents said that the question of whether she was paralysed during the crash or when she was pulled out of the car has been disputed.

Torti’s lawyer Jody Steinberg said he would appeal, saying the Samaritan law should protect everybody.

“There was no evidence that our client was doing anything but trying to rescue a person in need,” Steinberg said.

“This is a public policy issue that needs to be re-examined by the legislature.”