The defense of sudden emergency "applies only to those acts that occur immediately after the apprehension of the danger or crisis. The defense in not available unless the evidence shows that the sudden peril offered the defendant a choice of conduct without time for thought, so that any negligence in the defendant's choice may be attributed to lack of time to assess the situation rather than lack of due care."

"The doctrine requires the the person confronted by the emergency have the opportunity to exercise one of several reasonable courses of action. In the absence of such factors, there can be no conduct to which to apply the standard and the doctrine is inapplicable."

Rayfield v. Farris, 558 S.E.2d 748(2002)