Tragic limo ride kills 20
TWENTY people were killed when a limousine carrying four sisters, other relatives and friends to a birthday party slammed into a parked car after running a red light.
US transport authorities have described the weekend crash in upstate New York as the nation’s deadliest in nearly a decade.
All 18 occupants of the limo died, along with two pedestrians.
Relatives said the limousine was carrying the sisters and their friends to a 30th birthday celebration for the youngest.
“They were wonderful girls,” said their aunt, Barbara Douglas, speaking with reporters Sunday.
“They’d do anything for you and they were very close to each other and they loved their family.”
She said three of the sisters were with their husbands.
“They did the responsible thing getting a limo so they wouldn’t have to drive anywhere,” she said, adding the couples had several children between them who they left at home.
The 2001 Ford Excursion limousine was travelling southwest on Route 30 in Schoharie, 270km north of New York City, when it failed to stop at an intersection about 2pm Saturday.
State Police First Deputy Superintendent Christopher Fiore told a news conference in Latham it then crossed the road, hitting an unoccupied parked SUV, killing the limo driver, his 17 passengers and two people standing in the street. Witness Linda Riley said the crash “sounded like an explosion”.
She had been in another car parked at the store and described seeing a body on the ground before hearing screams.
Witness Jessica Kirby, told The New York Times the limo was coming down a hill at “probably over 60mph”.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
It’s the deadliest transportation accident since February 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people, Sumwalt said.
At the news conference, Mr Fiore didn’t comment on the limo’s speed, or whether the limo occupants were wearing seatbelts. Authorities didn’t release the names of the victims or speculate on what caused the limo to run the stop sign. Autopsies were being conducted.
AP