Like nearly all crashes, limousine tragedies are not ‘accidents’
Builders of stretch limos should follow safety standards, but sadly not all do
The recent tragedy in upper New York State that claimed the lives of everyone inside a stretch limousine — 17 plus the driver — as well as two pedestrians was horrific, unthinkable. A group of mostly 30-somethings, including a group of siblings and longtime friends perished in Schoharie, N.Y. The ride they’d hired — initially a bus, which broke down en route and was switched out for the aging limo, a 2001 Ford Excursion — blazed down an incline toward a T-intersection of another rural highway, running the stop sign at the bottom and barrelling through a restaurant parking lot. The son of the owner of Prestige Limousine, Nauman Hussein, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, which includes all 20 victims. The limo failed an inspection just last month and never should have been on the road. The finger-pointing was instant, though one thing most headlines got wrong was the most basic one: this was not an accident. This was a crash, a collision, a tragedy, a brutal loss of young life, but it was not an accident. The witnesses on hand — those still capable of saying anything — blamed the road itself. There are always crashes here, they said. We’ve seen so many, they said. We all knew what the sound was, they said. The intersection is deadly, they said. Maybe it’s the worst intersection in the world, but I doubt it. The next reports were that the limo itself had failed safety inspections and the company had a sketchy record. According to a CNN report, the “U.S. Department of Transportation records show Prestige Limousine Chauffeur Service has two drivers and three vehicles. Its vehicles were inspected five times in the last two years, and the company has had four vehicles taken out of service.” More reports said the driver — now deceased — wasn’t properly licensed for the vehicle he was driving. The company dismissed all of this (it has since taken its fleet off the road), though of course, it’ll all come out in the wash. Those stretch limousines you see, and perhaps ride in on occasion, are not created in some factory alongside the other Lincolns, Hummers or Expeditions. They are purchased, cut in half, then extended in the middle. Think of the stringent safety standards that exist for every vehicle we drive. Then a modifier, who may or may not be adhering to those factory standards, cuts through pillars and floors to create a limo, often sacrificing airbag and other safety systems, and compromising the structural integrity of the vehicle. Now apply a “safety” list it must pass that doesn’t touch on all of those changes. Ford and Cadillac have a program to supply recommended shops; I’m uncertain if other manufacturers do. And there is, of course, no obligation for an owner to use such a service. Your car has something called a crumple zone. If you collide head on with another vehicle, the frame of your car is designed to instantly absorb the hit and “crumple,” so by the time the violence of the hit reaches the passenger cabin, it has been significantly reduced. And the combination of airbags and seatbelts keep you in your seat in a proper position to protect you. Side airbags now protect you from T-bone collisions. When a vehicle is modified to the extreme lengths that a stretch limousine is, all of these components may be compromised, if not missing altogether. Perhaps the biggest heartbreak of all in the New York crash was a text one young woman sent her aunt 20 minutes before the crash, saying the vehicle was in “terrible condition.” Trust your gut.