Limo company owner had failed inspections
The driver of the vehicle that crashed in Schoharie, N.Y., on Saturday, killing 20 people, also did not have a proper license.
The company that provided the limousine that crashed in upstate New York on Saturday, killing 20 people, had repeatedly failed motor vehicle inspections and the driver did not have a proper license, according to state officials and federal transportation records. One victim expressed concerns about the limousine in a text sent shortly before the crash, relatives and friends said.
One friend said she got a text from one of the victims, Erin McGowan, telling her that a party bus that was supposed to pick up the group of friends to take them to a brewery had broken down on the way there.
Instead, the group obtained a stretch limousine, which was in shoddy condition, McGowan told her friend, using a profanity to describe the vehicle.
The friend, Melissa Healey, 33, who had been the maid of honor at McGowan’s wedding this summer, shared the texts with The New York Times.
“The motor is making everyone deaf,” wrote McGowan, before Healey asked from where they rented the car.
McGowan responded that she wasn’t sure, but then added, “When we get to brewery we will all b deaf.” They never made it. The company that rented the vehicle was Prestige Limousine, a small company doing business out of Gansevoort, New York, a town north of Albany, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who briefed the news media about the investigation. A review of federal transportation records show the company, which had three vehicles, had failed inspections, though the records did not provide details about the failures.
Cuomo said the driver, who has not been identified by authorities, “did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating that vehicle.” The governor also said the limousine involved in the accident had been inspected last month and failed and “was not supposed to be on the road.”
But he cautioned that the cause of the accident had not been determined, noting they were looking at both mechanical malfunction and driver error. The state already has issued a cease-and-desist order to prevent Prestige Limousine from operating.
A phone number listed for the company in federal records was disconnected Monday.
Federal officials said the crash in Schoharie, New York, a small town about 40 miles west of Albany, was the worst transportation-related accident in nine years, since a 2009 plane crash outside Buffalo.
On Monday, investigators continued to search for clues as to what caused the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine to speed down a rural highway, through a stop sign and into an unoccupied car, killing 17 friends in the vehicle who were on their way to celebrate a birthday party. Two pedestrians were also killed in the crash.
The investigation also will include autopsies of the victims, a tight-knit group that included four sisters, two brothers and several young couples. Those victims had yet to be identified but heartbroken friends and relatives were already posting testimonials.
“I lost my two best friends,” wrote Justin Cushing, whose brother Patrick, friend Adam Jackson and cousin, McGowan, all died in the limousine. “I’m shaking.”
The intersection where the accident occurred was known among residents as being notoriously dangerous: a tricky T-shape, where east-west traffic often sped by in excess of the posted 50 mph speed limit.
“This has long been a source of discord in Schoharie,” said Rosemary Christoff Dolan, who had come to the accident site Sunday.
In fact, officials from the state Department of Transportation had described the intersection as a “high-accident’’ location and had planned to turn it into a roundabout to improve safety.