peril

Imminent peril, or imminent danger, is an American legal concept that defines the term as "certain danger, immediate, and impending; menacingly close at hand, and threatening." In many states in the US, a mere necessity for quick action does not constitute an emergency within the doctrine of imminent peril, where the situation calling for the action is one which should reasonably have been anticipated and which the person whose action is called for should have been prepared to meet; the doctrine of imminent peril does not excuse one who has brought about the peril by their own negligence.

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