LIMO FIRM DEFIED NY STATE
Kept death vehicle on road after failing inspection: DOT
The owner of the upstate death limousine was ordered to keep it off the road after it failed a safety inspection last month, the state Department of Transportation said Tuesday.
“The vehicle was subject to inspections, and the owner was warned not to operate the vehicle,” DOT spokesman Joseph Morrissey said. “The vehicle was placed out of service.”
Morrissey’s comments contradicted claims by Prestige Limousine earlier in the day that all the problems with the customized 2001 Ford Excursion had been fixed before Saturday’s crash.
He called that assertion “categorically false.”
Meanwhile, it surfaced that Prestige tried to unload the limo just two days before the wreck that killed 20 — and more disturbing details on the vehicle’s condition were reported.
A Craigslist posting dated Thursday offered the limo for sale for just $9,000 or best offer.
The ad says the vehicle had 180,000 miles on its odometer, but was in “excellent” condition and “[DOT] Ready full serviced.”
The owner’s name wasn’t included, but the telephone contact number was the same as the one used by several companies linked to Prestige owner and former FBI informant Shahed Hussain, 62, who State Police have said was out of the country.
Gov. Cuomo on Monday said the limo failed a DOT inspection last month that found fault with its “suspension system, chassis system, braking system.” But the vehicle also failed an earlier inspection, on March 21, according to the Albany Times Union, which first reported the Craigslist ad.
The paper obtained copies of documents filed after both inspections that detailed serious is- sues with the limo’s brake system, including connections with constrictions, brakes out of service and a malfunction of the antilock-braking-system indicators.
The September inspection also found defective emergency exits and noted a “failure to correct defects noted on previous inspection report,” the paper said.
Prestige lawyer Lee Kindlon on Tuesday denied that the violations caused the limo to blow past a stop sign at the bottom of a hill and then hurtle through a parking lot and smash into a drainage ditch in Schoharie.
“I don’t think that these infractions were what led to the tragedy,” Kindlon told CBS News.
Kindlon added the “safety issues had been addressed and corrected.”
In an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Kindlon disputed the assertions by Cuomo, who warned of potential “legal consequences.”
“We understand what the governor is saying, what the DOT is saying, certainly it is in their interests to point away from any failures on behalf of the state,” Kindlon said. “But as we understand . . . the inspections last month were minor things, windshield wipers, a latch on a windshield that needed to be fixed.”
DOT spokesman Morrissey told The Wall Street Journal that Kindlon’s assertions are “categorically false,” and that the limo had been marked with an out-of-service sticker.
A lawyer for the family of limo driver Scott Lisinicchia, who died in the crash, put the blame on the vehicle. “The family believes that, unbeknownst to him, he was provided with a vehicle that was neither roadworthy nor safe for any of its occupants,” George Longworth said.
Authorities have said Lisinicchia, who was busted for drug possession in 2010 and 2013, did not have the Passenger Transport endorsement on his license that is needed to operate a limo.
His wife, Kim, however, defended him in an interview with lohud.com, saying “He didn’t want to put anyone in jeopardy.”