What is the effect of the fireman's rule on a speeding driver?

The distinction between the original act of speeding and a subsequent act of negligence is important. In the cases applying the fireman's rule the accepted facts allowed no possibility of an independent tortious act by the defendant who created the original hazard. For example, in Hubbard, supra, the officer was still chasing the speedster. Hubbard simply continued the fireman's rule of Walters v. Sloan (1977) 20 Cal.3d 199, 142 Cal.Rptr. 152, 571 P.2d 609, and held that the rule applied also to the case of a wantonly reckless defendant as well as to a merely negligent driver.