In Wake of Crash That Killed 20, a Call for Regulations on Limousines

While investigators continue searching for the cause of the limousine crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York last week and families mourn their lost loved ones, a senator is calling for more stringent safety regulations for limousines.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, called on the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate all future limousine crashes nationwide in order to gather the information needed to create stricter safety regulations for the vehicles.

“Stretch limos exist in a gray area. They’re not a car. They’re not a bus. And that’s the problem,” Schumer said at a news conference in Manhattan on Sunday. “They fall through the regulatory cracks and there are no safety standards for them. That has to change.”

Most of the scrutiny has focused on vehicles that are modified after they leave the factory, like the 2001 Ford Excursion involved in last week’s crash, the deadliest transportation accident in the United States in almost a decade. The vehicles are often cut in half and then extended, which eliminates some of the vehicle’s original protections. Side rollover pillars and air bags are typically removed or rendered useless.

In 2015, at Schumer’s urging, the National Transportation Safety Board agreed to investigate limousine accidents on a case-by-case basis after four women were killed on Long Island in a collision between a pickup truck and a stretch limousine. A Long Island grand jury issued a report in 2016 that concluded stretch limousines were underregulated.

But Schumer said that the independent agency has not thoroughly investigated any limousine accident since then. Data from those accidents, the senator said, are essential to issue new safety recommendations and change the laws.

“The sad fact here is that right now everyone is talking about limo safety when we could have been studying for the past few years,” Schumer said. “The NTSB knows they need to fix this situation so we can have as much information as possible available.”

There were 12 limousine crashes resulting in a dozen deaths in the U.S. between 2012 and 2016, according to Schumer’s office.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is still investigating the accident, did not respond to email messages on Sunday.

The modified limousines are usually exempt from rigorous federal safety requirements and inspection systems vary from state to state.

The Ford involved in last week’s crash was built for nine people and was then elongated to fit 18 people. It had repeatedly failed New York state inspections, including one as recently as last month. Numerous violations, some related to the vehicle’s braking system, had resulted in the limousine being ordered off the road twice.

Officials also said that the limousine’s driver, Scott Lisinicchia, who died in the crash, was not properly licensed to drive the vehicle.

On Wednesday, the operator of the limousine company, Nauman Hussain, was arrested by the State Police and charged with criminally negligent homicide. He pleaded not guilty.

Over the weekend, several funerals were held in Amsterdam, New York, where most of the 17 passengers in the limousine were from. The passengers were part of a tight-knit group of friends and relatives, some of them recently married, all of them in their late 20s or early 30s.

They were on their way to a brewery to celebrate Amy Steenburg’s 30th birthday when the limousine careened down a hill in Schoharie, New York, crossed a busy intersection, clipped a parked car, killed two pedestrians, and slammed into a creek bed.

Among the victims were Steenburg and her husband, Axel Steenburg; his brother, Richard Steenburg; three of Steenburg’s sisters, Abigail Jackson, Mary Dyson and Allison King; and two of their spouses, Adam Jackson and Robert Dyson.

Hundreds of mourners packed a church for the combined funeral for all eight of them Saturday. The urns of the married couples were surrounded by their photographs and five teddy bears — one for each child they left behind.