DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with one bill of costs.
After the defendant Meiling C. Chen and the plaintiff, respectively, established their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, the defendant Warren Hildebrand failed to raise a triable issue of fact. A rear-end collision is sufficient to create a prima facie case of liability with respect to the operator of the offending vehicle and imposes a duty on the operator to explain how the accident occurred (see Levine v. Taylor, 268 A.D.2d 566; Gambino v. City of New York, 205 A.D.2d 583). If the operator of the offending vehicle cannot come forward with evidence to rebut the inference of negligence, the drivers of the lead vehicles may properly be awarded judgment as a matter of law. A claim that the drivers suddenly stopped is insufficient to rebut the presumption of negligence (see Dileo v. Greenstein, 281 A.D.2d 586; Leal v. Wolff, 224 A.D.2d 392; Silberman v. Surrey Cadillac Limousine Serv., 109 A.D.2d 833).
RITTER, J.P., SANTUCCI, FEUERSTEIN and SCHMIDT, JJ., concur.