20 killed in limo crash at a known danger spot
THE site of a devastating accident that killed two pedestrians and 18 occupants of a limousine headed to a birthday party, including four sisters, is a known danger spot that has long worried locals, according to a manager of the store that sits at the intersection where the incident happened.
The intersection had been redone in 2008 because of a fatal accident, said Jessica Kirby, managing director of the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe, which is an institution in Schoharie.
Since the reconstruction, three tractor-trailers have run through the same stop sign. Authorities said the limo blew into a field behind Kirby’s business. Officials worked with the state to outlaw heavy trucks but there are still accidents.
“More accidents than I can count,” Kirby said. “We have been asking for something to be done for years.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo said he has “directed state agencies to provide every resource necessary to aid in the investigation and determine what led to this tragedy.”
Autopsies were being performed; authorities didn’t say whether the limo occupants were wearing seat belts or give the speed of the limo.
Relatives said the limousine was carrying four sisters and their friends to a 30th birthday celebration on Saturday.
“They did the responsible thing getting a limo so they wouldn’t have to drive anywhere,” their aunt, Barbara Douglas, said Sunday. “They were wonderful girls. They’d do anything for you and they were very close to each other and they loved their family.”
The 2001 Ford Excursion limousine was traveling southwest on Route 30 in Schoharie, about 270 kilometers north of New York City when it failed to stop at a T-junction with state Route 30A, state police said. It went across the road and hit an unoccupied SUV parked at the store and two pedestrians.
The crash is the deadliest land-vehicle accident in the US since a bus ferrying nursing home patients away from Hurricane Rita caught fire in Texas 2005, killing 23. And it is the deadliest transportation accident overall since February 2009, when a plane crash near Buffalo, New York, killed 50 people.