Finger pointing begins in NY limo crash
NEW YORK: Lawyers for the family of a limousine driver who died along with 19 others in an upstate accident here and the owner of the vehicle are clashing over the cause of the deadliest United States transport accident in nearly a decade.
State police said the driver, Scott Lisinicchia, 53, did not have the proper license to operate the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine that crashed in Schoharie here on Saturday, and that the vehicle had failed inspection last month.
A lawyer for Prestige Limousine, which owned the vehicle, said the safety violations that led it to fail inspection were minor and did not cause the crash.
“I don’t think that these infractions were what led to the tragedy,” attorney Lee Kindlon told CBS News in an interview.
But a lawyer for the driver’s family said the limo had problems.
“The family believes that, unbeknownst to him, he was provided with a vehicle that was neither roadworthy nor safe,” said George Longworth.
Lisinicchia’s twin brother, Keith, said Scott was an experienced and conscientious driver who was properly licensed.
“I know that he always kept his licence up. I mean it was a CDL (commercial driver’s licence),” Keith told WRGB TV in Albany.
Before the limousine crashed on the way to a birthday party, one victim, Erin McGowan, texted a friend that the limousine appeared to have engine trouble, the New York Times reported.
McGowan’s aunt, Valerie Abeling, told CNN her niece had texted a friend saying the company had sent the stretch limousine to replace a vehicle that had broken down. All three vehicles owned by Prestige Limousine, which is based in Gansevoort, had violations when they were inspected last month.
Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered flags in the state lowered to half-staff, adding on Twitter that “It is hard to fathom the extent of this tragedy”.