4 sisters & hubbies among 20 limo dead
Family in shock at carnage
BY RECORD REPORTER reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk FOUR sisters celebrating the youngest one’s birthday with three of their husbands were among 20 people killed when their limo crashed.
Just minutes before the tragedy on Saturday, passengers in the stretched SUV texted relatives to say it was barely roadworthy.
Among the dead were sisters Allison King, Abby Jackson, Mary Dyson, and Amy Steenburg, whose 30th birthday they were celebrating.
Amy’s husband Axel Steenburg, 29, also died in the crash in upstate New York, leaving their children – four-year-old son Archer and 16-month-old girl Abby – orphaned. Axel’s brother, Rich Steenburg, 34, was also killed.
“One just got married, and that’s what this was – her new husband was giving her a surprise birthday party,” the sisters’ aunt Barbara Douglas said.
Their brother, Tom King, 35, said his four sisters “were very tight”, adding: “They were the four musketeers.’’
He said his parents “are in shock”, adding: “We all are what’s left. There was seven of us – five sisters and two brothers.”
The tragedy – America’s worst transport disaster in nearly a decade – happened in Schoharie, 35 miles west of Albany.
Amy Dunlop-Johnson, who is related to some of the victims, said the group had been visiting wineries in the area. They were said to be going to a brewery in Cooperstown.
Twenty minutes before the crash, newlywed Erin McGowan – who died alongside husband Shane – texted a friend to say the limo, driven by Scott Lisinicchia, 53, was “in terrible condition”.
The limo, which was carrying 18 people including the driver, crashed at 60mph after running a stop sign into a parked SUV.
It then fatally hit two bystanders.