Fix the f laws
It’s been nearly two years since 20 people lost their lives to a death-trap limousine in Schoharie County. How many more years will pass before we know how the vehicle was able to stay on the road?
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that blame for the 2018 limo crash fell on the vehicle’s owners, Prestige Limousine. But it noted that the state bears part of the responsibility for this tragedy for its agencies’ flawed oversight process.
The board’s scathing rebuke of the Department of Transportation and Department of Motor Vehicles was met with a tepid response from the state: It’s not our fault.
That’s not nearly enough. The state owes it to the victims’ families, and to the public, to answer: How was Prestige able to misrepresent the limo to the DMV, allowing it to dodge special safety checks? Did DOT do adequate follow-up to ensure repairs had been made? In short: How did this vehicle fall through the cracks?
DOT and DMV have not released records about their oversight of Prestige. That’s shameful. It impedes the only possible good that could come of this: finding the flaws in the oversight process to make sure it can never happen again.
Putting on a show
Rensselaer County has again barred the door to state health inspectors, telling a team that showed up at the county nursing home they could not enter without proof they ’ve tested negative for COVID -19.
It’s the latest scene in County Executive Steve Mclaughlin’s protest theater. In July, when a Health Department team visited Van Rensselaer Manor, Mr. Mclaughlin told them they couldn’t complete their inspection without an escort, which they refused.
He OK’D the July inspection after DOH assured him the inspectors had tested negative. Then he suggested in a Facebook broadcast they may have lied.
It’s no secret Mr. Mclaughlin loathes the Cuomo administration — though he says he’s simply following state rules requiring nursing home visitors to test negative.
But this is more than a political standoff. DOH teams are looking for lapses in infection-control protocols that could imperil residents — and are finding them around the state.
So the state should call his bluff. Inspectors should return with test results in hand. If Mr. Mclaughlin still won’t let them in he’ll have to find another excuse for blocking them. He can crow about it all he wants to his Facebook fans, but when they realize he’s putting the facility ’s residents at risk, they might get tired of the show.
A dose of optimism
A tip of the cap to Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and city officials for having the courage to look toward better days.
Mayor Sheehan announced plans for park improvements, including a theater and pavilion in Lincoln Park, as well as for revitalizing Lark Street.
These kinds of investments can draw residents and businesses, which are essential to Albany ’s longterm health. And speaking of health, the pandemic has shown us the importance of gathering spaces like parks and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes: They keep community alive despite everything this year has thrown at us.
And unspoken in these plans is a vital message: This too shall pass.