Fatal limousine failed road safety test before crash

Minutes before a limousine crashed in New York killing 20 people, a passenger sent a text about its poor condition.

The limousine had failed a road safety test. Picture: FIOS1

A limousine that careered through a stop sign and crashed into a ditch in New York, killing the 18 people on board and two pedestrians, had recently failed a safety inspection and should not have been on the road.

The driver, who was among those to die, did not have a licence to carry passengers, all of whom were travelling to a birthday party.

One of those on board had sent a message 20 minutes before the crash, complaining that the stretch limousine, a 17-year-old Ford Excursion, was in a “terrible condition”.

The crash in upstate New York, the deadliest transport accident in the US in nearly a decade, killed four sisters, two of their husbands and several relatives and friends.

The vehicle ran through the junction at 96km/h, crashed into an empty car, hit and killed two pedestrians and rolled off the road near the town of Schoharie, 50km west of the state capital, Albany.

The car was taking the group to a brewery for the 30th birthday party of Amy Steenburg, who was among those killed in the crash. Her husband, Axel, had rented the vehicle and invited her three sisters and other relatives and close friends for the weekend celebration.

Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, said that the vehicle had failed an inspection last month. “The owner of the company had no business putting a failed vehicle on the road,” he told reporters, adding that the driver did not have the commercial licence required to drive the limousine.

State police are investigating if there was a fault with the brakes of the limousine, which could seat up to 24 people.

They were also looking at whether the passengers were wearing seat belts, although under state law only the driver and occupant of the front passenger seat must be belted in.

Erin and Shane McGowan died in the limo crash.

Yesterday it was stated that Erin McGowan, 34, who died along with her new husband, Shane, 30, had sent a text message to her cousin about 20 minutes before the crash to say that the vehicle was in a poor state. It had been hired as a replacement after a bus the party was due to take broke down.

Valerie Abeling, Ms McGowan’s aunt, told The Washington Post that the text had said the vehicle appeared to be in “terrible condition.”

Jessica Kirby, the manager of the Apple Barrel country store next to where the crash happened, said the junction was at the base of steep hill and was the site of previous accidents. “We’ve had three tractor-trailer type vehicles - they come down that hill too fast, they go though our parking lot and they end up in a field behind our business,” she told The New York Times.

The two pedestrians killed had been shopping in the store.

Anthony Vertucci, an uncle to one of the victims, told the Albany Times Union: “My whole entire family is in complete and utter shock. It’s hard and so tragic. There are so many families affected by this.”

Rental limousines have a history of questionable safety. In 2015 Chuck Schumer, the New York senator, called for stricter federal vehicle safety rules for limousines after a crash killed four people in Long Island, New York.

The Times