Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court (R. Sise, J.), entered April 2, 2012 in Saratoga County, which denied defendant’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.
We are not persuaded by defendant’s contention that Supreme Court erred in considering an affidavit of Stephanie Ippoliti, a passenger in the car at the time of the collision, on the ground that her affidavit, made in response to defendant’s motion, contradicts her initial statement made to police nine days after the accident. In support of his motion, defendant submitted, among other things, his own affidavit, the police accident report and the accident reconstruction report. In his affidavit, defendant attested that he “at no time . . . ever cross[ed] over the center yellow line . . . [and] remained in [his] lane of travel the entire time.” Additionally, defendant stated that the driver of the car had already lost control as it approached his truck, that it was “traveling in excess of 55 miles per hour and was sideways when [he] first saw it, the front remaining in its proper lane of travel, but the rear end sliding in [his] lane of travel.” Further, the reconstruction report concludes that defendant’s truck was not improperly in the lane of travel of the oncoming car.
As defendant met his initial burden as movant by presenting evidence demonstrating that he played no part in causing the accident, the burden shifted to plaintiff to produce evidence demonstrating that defendant acted negligently in order to raise a material issue of fact to preclude Supreme Court from granting defendant summary judgment (see CPLR 3212 [b]; Berg
Although defendant argues that the statements made in Ippoliti’s affidavit contradict her earlier statement to the police, a review of her statement to police and affidavit reveals that they are not inherently inconsistent (see O’Leary v Saugerties Cent. School Dist., 277 AD2d at 663; compare Kokin v Key Food Supermarket, Inc., 90 AD3d 850, 851 [2011]; Telfeyan v City of New York, 40 AD3d at 373; Harty v Lenci, 294 AD2d at 298). Viewing the evidence most favorably to plaintiff, as the nonmovant (see Rought v Price Chopper Operating Co., Inc., 73 AD3d 1414, 1414-1415 [2010]), we find that the unspecific language of her initial statement to the police did not unambiguously exculpate defendant from all responsibility for the accident or indicate to which truck—defendant’s or the tractor trailer—she was referring. In our view, Supreme Court properly concluded that Ippoliti’s subsequent affidavit placing defendant’s dump truck in the car’s oncoming lane was a “more specific statement” than her previous statement to police and, as such, did not err in considering that affidavit (see Jahangir v Logan Bus Co., Inc., 89 AD3d 1064, 1064-1065 [2011]).
We agree with defendant that Supreme Court improperly considered the conclusion of plaintiffs expert—that Ippoliti’s initial vague statement to police regarding the events leading
Ordered that the order is affirmed, without costs.
