Photo: Hans Pennink/AP/REX/Shutterstock
With details still emerging about the natureof a crash this weekend in upstate New Yorkthat killed20 people, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters on Monday that the limousine involved recently failed an inspection — and the driver was not properly licensed to operate the vehicle.
Cuomo named the company that rented the limo as Prestige Limousine, in Gansevoort, New York,according to theNew York Times. He spoke with the media about the crash while attending a Columbus Day parade in New York City,Newsdayreports.
Prestige appearsto operate under other namesand shares an address with three other similarly named limo companies,according to local news reports, citing public records.
Prestige has been ordered to stop operating pending an investigation, Cuomo said, according toNewsday.
“The owner of the company had no business putting a failed vehicle on the road,” the governor said, according toNewsdayandNBC News.
He said the limo was inspected in September but failed, theTimesreports. The limo “was not supposed to be on the road,” Cuomo said.
Hans Pennink/AP/REX/Shutterstock
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Not long before the crash, one of the passengers had complained to a friend, theTimesreports, citing text messages between them. “The motor is making everyone deaf,” Eric McGowan wrote.
The limo, a 2001 Ford Excursion, was “chopped” and elongated and was subject to federal review that it was legal, Cuomo said, according to NBC News. However, it did not have such approval.
Cuomo told reporters on Monday that the exact cause remains unclear, such as whether it was the driver’s mistake, some kind of mechanical issue or a combination of both.
All 18 people in the limo, including the driver, were killed. The passengerswere close friends, relatives and couples. They had hired the vehicle as part of their birthday celebrations for passenger Amy Steenburg.
Aunt Barbara Doulgastold NBC: “I don’t know how to say it. Can’t wrap your head around such a tragedy where you have four of your daughters die.”
Valerie Abeling, aunt of victim Erin McGowan,echoed that to theWashington Post.
“It’s tragic. Horrible. I can’t even begin to even explain,” she said. “Our lives have been changed forever.”
source: people.com
