Posted on 05/01/2023 1:03:55 AM PDT by Libloather
SCHOHARIE, N.Y. -- Nearly five years after a stretch limousine packed with birthday revelers careened down a hill and off a road in rural upstate New York, killing 20 people, the operator of the company that rented out the vehicle is going on trial.
Nauman Hussain, who ran Prestige Limousine, is charged with criminally negligent homicide and second-degree manslaughter in connection with the Oct. 6, 2018 crash - one of the deadliest U.S. road wrecks of the past two decades - in Schoharie, a village west of Albany.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in Schoharie County Court.
Seventeen people using the limo for a birthday celebration were killed, along with the driver and two bystanders outside a country store where the vehicle crashed.
The victims' relatives have been on an emotional rollercoaster ever since. After pandemic-related delays in the criminal case, they were exasperated by a 2021 announcement of a plea deal that would have spared Hussain prison time. A surprise twist came last fall when a judge rejected the deal, setting up the trial this week a few miles down the road from the accident site.
**SNIP**
Victim Axel Steenburg had hired the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine for an outing to celebrate the 30th birthday of his wife, Amy, who was King's daughter.
The group was headed to a brewery outside Cooperstown, New York. The passengers ranged in age from 24 to 34 and included Axel Steenburg’s brother, Amy Steenburg’s three sisters and two of their husbands and close friends.
The National Transportation Safety Board found evidence of brake failure occurring on a long downhill stretch of road on the way to the brewery. The vehicle is believed to have reached speeds of more than 100 mph (160 kph) when it blew through a stop sign...
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Thank FauciFlu and Cuomo for the delay
Reminds me when I use to drive a Yellow cab in NYC back in the 1990s. When I first started I didn’t know you were suppose to tip the dispatchers so they would constantly give me taxis that were utter lemons, and one night I was driving through Times Square and gee whiz, the brakes went and I ended up crashing through this police barricade and a garbage can. Absolutely lucky I didn’t kill anyone, I mean we are talking Times Square here! And the cops did a whole report and incredibly the Taxi company was allowed to continue handing out lemons. The corruption was unreal
“If the brakes fail, don’t you just throw the car into first gear? Even automatic transmission can do that. It will destroy your transmission but at least you live.”
Diving down into the foggy days of youth...No I don’t remember it working that way. If you don’t match rpm’s you end up stripping the gears and then you have nothing.
If the driver had shifted into a lower gear before the speed got too high that would have helped keep the speed down but may have overheated the transmission, resulting in needing a new tranny. But probably no fatalities.
I wonder if the driver ever tried the EMERGENCY BRAKE at any point? They were designed for situations with iffy fluid brakes.
An Excursion(stretched) that holds 20 is no longer a limo. It’s called a party bus.
From the threads back then, all the victims were compressed/smashed into that front end upon impact with the embankment.
Sure did. There were a spate of NYS vehicle crashes around that time. “Aunt Diane” who drove drunk and stoned the wrong way on the thruway and killed her daughter, three nieces, herself and three men in an SVU. Then there was the limo coming from a wedding which was rammed by a pickup driver hellbent on killing himself. The accident decapitated the flower girl and the mother wouldn’t let go of her head. Rode with in the ambulance to the hospital.
Note to self: Skip the limo. Take two cars.
...Tom King, the father of four sisters killed in the crash.
That is friggin' horrible...
Unbelievable the prosecution actually accepted a plea bargain with no jail time for this man last year…. Fortunately the judge threw it the hell out.
https://apnews.com/article/new-york-homicide-nauman-hussain-3c16ea7a4a5bdb39e56cdf183227fc08
The criminal Justice system is disgusting.
What DA on gods green earth lets a man skate after killing 20 people ?
He is named as Tom King in the article.
Perhaps hit the emergency brakes? Or do they use same defective brake pads?
No trials during Covid as explained in the article.
Intersection now is a roundabout.
YARKYIKES !!! TMI for this early in the morning.
Or do they use same defective brake pads?
************
YES
Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has been working hard for years to have the owner of the company investigated and charged. It’s finally happening.
Stefanik is the new Republican Majority Whip and is the highest ranking Republican representing New York in over 20 years. She is the one Harvard fired as an advisor for her “unfounded claims of voter fraud” in the presidential election.
Well written article. Horrible what that POS family and the POS Feds did to all those people.
The FBI protects their informants. Remember Whitey Bulger. How many years did the FBI claim they couldn't find him?
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