20 dead in limousine accident to celebrate birthday
20 dead in limousine accident to celebrate birthday
A limousine loaded with revelers heading for a 30th birthday celebration blew a stop sign at the end of a highway and crashed into an SUV parked in front of a store, killing the 18 people in the limousine and two pedestrians in the car. most deadly transport accident in the US A decade, officials and relatives of the victims said Sunday.
The collision turned a relaxed Saturday afternoon into chaos in the north of the state NY Popular place among tourists who take in the fall foliage. Family members said the limo was taking four sisters and their friends to a birthday celebration for the little ones.
"They did the responsible thing by getting a limo so they would not have to drive anywhere," her aunt, Barbara Douglas, told reporters on Sunday. She said that three of the sisters were with their husbands and identified them as Amy and Axel Steenburg, Abigail and Adam Jackson, Mary and Rob Dyson and Allison King.
Douglas said couples had several children among them that they left at home.
"They were wonderful girls," said Douglas. "They would do anything for you and they were very close to each other and they loved their family."
The 2001 Ford Excursion limousine traveled southwest on Route 30 in Schoharie, approximately 170 miles (270 kilometers) north of New York City, when it did not stop at 2 p.m. On Saturday at a junction with state route 30A, the first deputy superintendent of state police, Christopher Fiore, said at a press conference in Latham, New York.
He crossed the road and hit an unoccupied SUV parked in the Apple Barrel Country Store, killing the limo driver, the 17 passengers and two people outside the vehicle.
The crash "sounded like an explosion," said Linda Riley, of nearby Schenectady, who was shopping with her sisters. She had been in another car parked in the store, saw a body on the ground and heard people scream.
The store manager, Jessica Kirby, told The New York Times that the limo was going down a hill at "probably over 60 mph." In an email to The Associated Press, she complained that the crossover where the accident occurred is prone to accidents.
"We had 3 tractor-trailer trucks that went through the stop through our driveway to a field behind the business," Kirby wrote. "All this happened during business hours and could have killed someone at that time."
He added that the state Department of Transportation has banned heavy trucks at the intersection, but there are constantly smaller accidents. "More accidents than I can count."
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
"This is one of the biggest loss of lives we've seen in a long, long time," said NTSB President Robert Sumwalt.
It is the deadliest transport accident since February 2009, when Flight 3407 of Colgan Air crashed in Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people, Sumwalt said.
And it seems to be the deadliest land vehicle accident since a bus that transported patients from nursing homes away from Hurricane Rita caught fire in Texas in 2005, killing 23 people.
At the press conference, Fiore did not comment on the speed of the limousine, or if the occupants of the limousine were using seat belts. The authorities did not disclose the names of the victims or speculate on what caused the slime to execute the stop sign. They were performing autopsies.
Speaking in tears over the phone, Valerie Abeling said her 34-year-old niece, Erin Vertucci, was among the victims, along with Vertucci's newly-married husband, Shane McGowan, 30.
"She was a beautiful and sweet soul, he was too," said Abeling.
The couple got married in June at a "beautiful wedding" in New York State, Abeling said. "They had everything in their favor."
Vertucci, who grew up in Amsterdam, New York, was an administrative assistant at St. Mary's Healthcare in Amsterdam, Abeling said.
The vehicle was a limousine from the secondary market, according to an official informed about the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and, therefore, refused a new identification.
Safety issues in such vehicles have arisen before, especially after an accident on Long Island in July 2015 in which four women died in a visit to the warehouse. They were in a Lincoln Town Car that had been cut and rebuilt in an elastic configuration to accommodate more passengers. The limousine was trying to make a U-turn and was hit by a van.
A grand jury found that vehicles converted into stretched limousines often do not have safety measures, such as side-impact airbags, reinforced rollover protection bars and accessible emergency exits. That grand jury called the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, to convene a working group on limousine safety.
Limousines built in factories must already comply with strict safety standards, but when cars become limousines, safety features are sometimes eliminated, creating loopholes in safety protocols, the grand jury wrote.
On Sunday, New York's senior senator, Chuck Schumer, noted that he asked the NTSB to harden standards after the collapse of 2015. "I commend the immediate help of the NTSB on the scene and I am very hopeful that we will soon have answers concrete, "said Schumer.
According to NTSB data, accidents with limousines are still rare. They represented only one fatal accident of 34,439 fatal accidents in 2016, the last year for which data are available.
Cuomo on Sunday issued a statement saying: "My heart is broken by the 20 people who lost their lives in this horrible accident on Saturday in Schoharie." I congratulate the first responders who arrived on the scene and worked all night to help. They have ordered state agencies to provide all the necessary resources to help in this investigation and determine what led to this tragedy. "
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Salsberg reported from Boston. Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo in New York City, John Kekis in Latham, New York, and David Klepper in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
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