90 A.D.3d 537 935 N.Y.S.2d 18

Mary Asantewaa, Respondent, v City of New York, Appellant.

[935 NYS2d 18]

Plaintiff was injured when, while a passenger in defendant’s ambulance, the ambulance suddenly stopped, causing plaintiff, who was seated on a bench in the rear compartment of the ambulance and not wearing a seatbelt, to fall off the bench. It is well settled that the operator of an ambulance owes its passengers a duty of reasonable care (see Bethel v New York City Tr. Auth., 92 NY2d 348, 356 [1998]). However, that duty does not require that the operator of the vehicle ensure that an adult *538passenger has fastened his or her seatbelt (see e.g. Stewart v Taylor, 193 AD2d 1078 [1993]). Moreover, the New York City Fire Department’s internal rules requiring that members ensure that passengers in emergency vehicles wear seatbelts imposes a greater standard of care upon defendant than that imposed by law, and thus, a violation of said rules cannot serve as basis for plaintiff to impose liability upon defendant (see Gilson v Metropolitan Opera, 5 NY3d 574, 577 [2005]; Rahimi v Manhattan & Bronx Surface Tr. Operating Auth., 43 AD3d 802, 804 [2007]).

Contrary to plaintiffs contention that even if her allegations that defendant was liable based on its failure to ensure that plaintiff was wearing a seatbelt are found to be not viable she is still entitled to summary judgment based on her allegations that the ambulance was operated in a negligent manner, the record presents triable issues of fact in this regard. Concur— Gonzalez, EJ., Mazzarelli, Andrias and Sweeny, JJ.

Asantewaa v. City of New York
90 A.D.3d 537 935 N.Y.S.2d 18

Case Details

Name
Asantewaa v. City of New York
Decision Date
Dec 20, 2011
Citations

90 A.D.3d 537

935 N.Y.S.2d 18

Jurisdiction
New York

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