Horror US crash
Twenty people killed in state of New York
A LIMOUSINE carrying four sisters, other relatives and friends to a birthday celebration has blown through a stop sign and slammed into a parked 4WD outside a store in upstate New York, killing all 18 people in the limo and two pedestrians.
The weekend crash was characterised by authorities as the deadliest US transportation accident in nearly a decade.
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.”
Douglas said three of the sisters were with their husbands, and she identified them as Amy and Axel Steenburg, Abigail and Adam Jackson, Mary and Rob Dyson and Allison King.
“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 limousine was travelling in Schoharie, about 270km north of New York City, when it failed to stop at a T-junction.
It went across the road and hit an unoccupied and parked 4WD, killing the limousine driver, the 17 passengers, and two people outside the vehicle.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. “This is one of the biggest losses of life that we’ve seen in a long, long time,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said.
It’s the deadliest transportation accident since February 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday released a statement saying, “My heart breaks for the 20 people who lost their lives in this horrific accident on Saturday in Schoharie. I commend the first responders who arrived on the scene and worked through the night to help.”
Simpson
Photo:
Tyler