Asantewaa v. City of New York

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,…