Limo had failed inspection
SCHOHARIE, N.Y. — The supersized limousine that crashed and killed 20 people outside a country store failed a safety inspection last month and shouldn’t have been on the road, and the driver wasn’t properly licensed, New York’s governor said Monday.
The state moved to shut down the owner, Prestige Limousine, as state and federal authorities investigated the cause of Saturday’s wreck in Schoharie.
The crash about 170 miles north of New York City came three years after another deadly stretch-limo wreck in New York state spurred calls for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to examine such vehicles’ safety. It was not clear whether the state took any steps to do so.
As victims’ relatives tried to come to grips with the tragedy that happened as a group of friends and family were on their way to a 30th birthday party, authorities had yet to say how fast the limo was going or determine what caused it to run a stop sign.
Investigators plan to examine the mangled limo’s data recorders and mechanical systems as well as the road, which has a history as a danger spot. They are also looking into the driver’s record and qualifications and conducting an autopsy to see if drugs or alcohol were factors.
But officials already saw some red flags, Cuomo said: The driver didn’t have the necessary commercial license, and the vehicle failed a state inspection that examined such things as the chassis, suspension and brakes.
“In my opinion, the owner of this company had no business putting a failed vehicle on the road,” the governor said while attending a Columbus Day Parade in New York City. “Prestige has a lot of questions to answer.”
A call to Prestige Limousine’s office in Gansevoort went unanswered. Federal records show the company has undergone five inspections in the past two years and had four vehicles pulled from service. State police said Monday that they seized three other cars from Prestige.
Federal transportation records said Prestige is owned by Shahed Hussain, who worked as an informant for the FBI after the Sept. 11 attacks, infiltrating Muslim groups by posing as a terrorist sympathizer in at least three investigations.