Stamford Advocate

Limo operator avoids prison time in crash that killed 20 people

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SCHOHARIE, N.Y. — The operator of a limousine company was spared prison time Thursday in a 2018 crash that killed 20 people when catastroph­ic brake failure sent a stretch limo full of birthday revelers hurtling down a hill in upstate New York.

Loved ones of the dead excoriated Nauman Hussain, 31, as he sat quietly at the defense table during a hearing that was held in a high school gymnasium to provide for social distancing among the many relatives, friends and media members attending.

Hussain, the former operator of Prestige Limousine, had originally been charged with 20 counts each of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree manslaught­er in what was the deadliest U.S. transporta­tion disaster in a decade.

But under an agreement for Hussain to plead guilty only to the homicide counts and spare families the uncertaint­ies and emotional toll of a trial, he is being sentenced to five years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service. His case had been delayed by the coronaviru­s pandemic.

As Judge George Bartlett III prepared to sentence Hussain, loved ones of the victims took turns talking of lives cut short, the holes left in their own and their frustratio­n that the operator would avoid time behind bars.

“Every day I try to wrap my head around this impossible situation,” said Sheila McGarvey, whose 30-yearold son Shane McGowan and his wife, Erin, were passengers.

She wished, she said, that a fraction of any money Hussain spent on lawyers would have been spent to fix the limo’s brakes.

Hussain was accused of putting the victims in a death trap.

“My son, my baby boy, was killed in a limo while trying to be safe,” said Beth Muldoon, the mother of Adam Jackson, 34, who was killed along with his wife, Abigail King Jackson.

The couple, who with the others had rented the limo to avoid drinking and driving, had two small children. Muldoon lamented the holidays and life milestones the parents will miss.

The judge noted that Hussain’s guilty plea could be used to buoy any lawsuits.

On Oct. 6, 2018, Axel Steenburg of Amsterdam, 30 miles west of Albany, rented the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine for the 30th birthday of his new wife, Amy. The party group, ranging in age from 24 to 34, included Axel’s brother, Amy’s three sisters and two of their husbands and close friends.

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