Stretching limits of safety

SCHOHARIE, N.Y. _ Stretch limousines almost always are after-market conversions that may or may not include such safety features as seat belts or the safety "cage" of metal beams common in factory-manufactured vehicles.

And the banquette-style seating common in many stretch limousines may not have seat belts at all. New York state law requires only that front-seat passengers be belted in, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

"Anecdotally, it looks like the sideways-facing banquette style seats don't always have seat belts," said Russ Rader, senior vice president of communications for the institute.

Investigators haven't said whether the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine involved in Saturday's crash in Schoharie was equipped with seat belts.

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo did say Monday that the vehicle had failed its state inspection and shouldn't have been on the road.

Twenty people _ all 17 passengers and the driver in the limousine, and two pedestrians _ were killed.

One limousine driver who contacted the Times Union but asked that his name not be used said that brake systems often aren't modified when a vehicle is stretched.

"The brake system is designed for a 7,000-pound vehicle, not a 24,000-pound vehicle," he said.

Seating often takes the shape of a J, with inward-facing seats wrapping from the front partition behind the driver and then down one side to the back doors, he said.

"That J seat typically does not have seat belts," he added. "If that vehicle comes to a sudden stop, people will fly forward."

Typically, "there won't be any airbags to protect passengers in back," he said.

And while the major automakers post limitations on how the vehicles are modified post-production, these are often ignored by the coach builders doing the stretching, he said.

"The vehicle failed physical inspection," Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters Monday. "First of all, when you have a stretch vehicle, what they call a chopped vehicle, which is what this limousine was. This was a Ford that was cut and extended.

"When that vehicle is constructed, it's supposed to have a federal certification as to the manufacturer of that vehicle," Cuomo said. "This vehicle did not have that certification that it was extended in a way that was compliant with federal law."

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are expected to look at these and other factors as they seek to determine the cause of Saturday's crash and draw up recommendations to prevent future tragedies.

Rader said that 12 people were killed in limousine crashes during a five-year period from 2012 to 2016. Of those, 11 weren't wearing a seat belt.

The data probably under-count the fatalities, he said, because of the way that police code the crash reports. There's one code for automobile-based limousines such as the Lincoln Continental.

But SUV-based limousines aren't similarly coded.

New York has changed inspection procedures for so-called stretch vehicles, shifting those procedures to the state Department of Transportation from the Department of Motor Vehicles. Stretch vehicles that carry 10 or more people, including the driver, are now are classified as buses.

But those changes weren't enough to keep this vehicle off the highway.

"The vehicle was inspected last month, failed inspection, it's not supposed to be on the road," said Cuomo. "The driver did not have the appropriate license. Those are very clear laws and regulations.

"Sometimes people just don't follow the law. And that," Cuomo said, "may very well be what happened here."

eanderson(at)timesunion.com - 518-454-5323