Limo wreck kills 20
‘Horrific’ accident is the deadliest in nation since 2009
A limousine slams into a parked SUV, killing all 18 people in the limo and two pedestrians in the deadliest U.S. transportation accident in nearly a decade.
SCHOHARIE, N.Y. — The 17 friends had all piled into a white stretch limousine for what was supposed to have been a birthday celebration at an upstate New York brewery. But they never reached their destination.
The massive vehicle, speeding downhill Saturday, approached the intersection of two highways that residents had long warned was notoriously dangerous.
And in just a few seconds of terror, their worst fears were realized: The limousine lost control, careening through the intersection and striking an empty car.
The crash killed all 18 occupants of the limousine, including its driver, as well as two pedestrians, in an accident that left deep tire tracks in the ground and the small town of Schoharie, New York, reeling.
“That limo was coming down that hill probably over 60 mph,” said Jessica Kirby, 36, manager of the Apple Barrel Country Store, where she said customers were hit near the parking lot. “All fatal.”
“I don’t want to describe the scene,” she added. “It’s not something I want to think about.”
Federal investigators arrived Sunday in the town that sits about 40 miles west of Albany and were scouring the scene. New York State Police said autopsies were underway on all the passengers and the driver of the limousine, including toxicology, though they cautioned that the investigation was in its early stages.
Still, the loss of life stunned even seasoned investigators, who called it the nation’s deadliest transportation accident since a 2009 plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., killed 50 people.
“Twenty fatalities is just horrific,” said Robert L. Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is launching a comprehensive investigation. “I’ve been on the board for 12 years and this is one of the biggest losses of life that we’ve seen in a long, long time.”
A day after the crash, remnants of the accident’s violence were readily visible, including a tire torn from the limousine that lay in the mud in the overgrown creek bed, below several trees that had presumably been sawed off to access the vehicle. What appeared to be debris from the car littered the scene: mirror fragments, taillight pieces, a hairbrush.
State Police said the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine barreled down one roadway and passed through the T-intersection where the two highways intersect without stopping, crashing into another vehicle, an unoccupied 2015 Toyota Highlander, before landing in a shallow ravine beyond the road. The two pedestrians were struck near the Apple Barrel and killed.
All those killed were adults, State Police said. They included at least two pairs of newlyweds and parents of young children.
In an afternoon news conference outside Albany, State Police offered few details about the accident, though Christopher Fiore, first deputy superintendent of the State Police, said that the limousine had been licensed in New York. Its driver was required to wear a seat belt; its passengers in the back were not, he said. Only one person inside the limousine apparently survived the initial impact; that person later died after being flown in a helicopter to an Albany hospital.
Alan Tavenner, town supervisor of Schoharie, called the death toll “completely mind-boggling” in a town of 3,000.