Good Samaritan law

First Aid & CPR Austria

The Good Samaritan: compassion and protection

Drawn from the Bible (Luke 10:25-37), the parable of the Good Samaritan tells of a traveller left for dead who is rescued by a stranger that tends to him and sees to his care. Beyond its religious context, it carries a universal message: the moral duty to help others in danger, through compassion and altruism.

Inspired by this principle, many so-called Good Samaritan laws have been enacted around the world to protect those who assist in good faith during an emergency from legal action. The exact scope of that protection, however, varies from one jurisdiction to another: here is what the law applicable to your region provides.

Statute citation

Governing act Section 95 of the Austrian Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch, StGB) — "Unterlassung der Hilfeleistung" (failure to render assistance).
Scope of protection Anyone present at an accident or public emergency must render the obviously necessary assistance to save another person from a danger of death or serious bodily or health injury. Assistance is not required where it would only be possible at the cost of a danger to one's own life or limb, or in breach of other significant interests. Austrian criminal law contains no separate civil-immunity shield for a volunteer rescuer.
Duty to rescue Yes
Penalty for failure to assist Imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to 360 daily rates; if the failure to assist results in the victim's death, up to one year's imprisonment or 720 daily rates.
AED liability protection No
Legal duty to rescue applies

Your protection under the law

In Austria, Section 95 of the Criminal Code (StGB) — "Unterlassung der Hilfeleistung" — makes failure to render assistance an offence, placing the rescuer's act firmly on the right side of the law from the outset. The rule is measured: the help must be obviously necessary to save another from a danger of death or serious injury, but it is never required at the cost of a danger to your own life or limb. Austrian criminal law provides no separate civil-immunity shield for the volunteer rescuer; it is the legal duty to act itself that grounds the legitimacy of your intervention.

Duty to rescue

In Austria, anyone present at an accident or public emergency must render the obviously necessary assistance: solidarity is not a courtesy but an obligation. Shirking it carries up to six months' imprisonment or a fine of up to 360 daily rates, rising to one year's imprisonment or 720 daily rates if the failure results in the victim's death. The law does not ask the impossible of you — only that you act within reason — and training is the surest way to know, when the moment comes, what "reasonable" actually means.

Why training matters

Austrian law expects reasonable assistance from you; what remains is knowing how to give it. In a cardiac arrest, every minute without resuscitation cuts the chance of survival by roughly 10%, and through those decisive minutes, before help arrives, the victim has only the bystander. By training, you turn a legal obligation into a real capacity: to recognise the emergency, give effective compressions and use a defibrillator without hesitation. It is the shortest path between "I wish I could have helped" and "I knew how to help." Take that step.