Ex-inspector: DOT shares blame in crash
His letter to inspector general said employees violated state laws
A retired state Department of Transportation employee is asking the New York inspector general’s office to examine the role his former agency played in the Schoharie limousine crash last October that killed 20 people.
Court filings and state records indicate that DOT investigators first began investigating Prestige Limousine, which owns the stretch Ford Excursion involved in the crash, more than a year before the tragedy.
DOT also ordered the Excursion off the road twice after failed safety inspections in the months leading up to the crash. Nauman Hussain, 29, who operated Prestige Limousine for his father, is facing 20 counts each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with the case.
But Ronald Barton of Otego, a former state commercial motor vehicle inspector who retired from the DOT in 2014, suggests the agency shares responsibility and should have done more to prevent the crash.
“The actions of certain employees of the NYSDOT continued to allow Prestige Limousine to transport passengers for hire after being found in egregious violation of New York state transportation laws/regulations,” Barton wrote.
A spokesman for Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro said their office reviews all complaints it receives.
But a DOT spokesman lashed out at the complaint — and at Barton, who worked for DOT for 25 years.
“The baseless claims made by this disgruntled former employee aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on,” DOT spokesman Joseph Morrissey said. “This individual last worked for DOT five years ago and would have absolutely no first-hand knowledge of the circumstances of this criminal case, in which the limo owner was indicted on 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide and 20 counts of manslaughter.”
Barton responded that his claims “are not baseless” since they come from his more than two decades of experience enforcing state transportation laws and regulations.
“’Disgruntled former employee’ would not be an accurate description,” Barton said. “A more accurate description would be someone who lost confidence in the New York state Department of Transportation to effectively apply the laws, rules and regulations pertaining to the safe transportation of property, passengers and hazardous materials.”
Barton previously testified on May 2 at the state Senate transportation committee’s hearing on limousine and bus safety, where he brought up some of the same issues outlined in the complaint. They included that under a previous owner, the Excursion had gone through the DOT’S semiannual inspection program designed for buses and stretch limousines.
Prestige Limousine purchased the 2001 Excursion, which seated 18, from Royale Transportation in 2016.
“This vehicle was intentionally removed from this concise inspection program for whatever reason,” Barton wrote.
Chad Smith, a DOT investigator, came upon the Excursion in June 2017 in the parking lot of Mavis Discount Tire in Saratoga Springs and found that the limo had been registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles as an 11-passenger vehicle, despite having previously being documented in the DOT inspection program as an 18-passenger vehicle.