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 ...
Third world situation here - where they ignored inspections and orders to remove the vehicle from the road - and then illegally retrofitted the limo to carry over its limit of seats and passengers.
The owner of the limo company should be charged with murder.
Note to self - Never deal with Pakistanis.
He should be in some trouble with 20 counts of manslaughter. They sometimes charge with murder for driving the wrong way on an interstate really drunk, but not sure this is murder legally.
Everyone got very sick at Indian restaurant near me. Unfortunately paid cash, so no record. Health Department report on it was unbelievable. They keep getting closed down by the Health Department and/or getting sued and keep opening under different name. Eventually, it became a Mediterranian restaurant and now it is an Italian restaurant. Almost no on goes there. I will not go to any Indian restaurant after that. Some of them have weird ideas about saving money, which ends up costing more.
There was a Pakistani restaurant owner in England who was charged with manslaughter after someone told him he was allergic to peanuts, but the restaurant used peanut powder anyway because it was a little cheaper than cashew powder.
In this case there’s also the issue of the vehicle being own by someone other than the driver, and of course the driver dying in the crash. If your brakes go out on a car you own and drive, not many places to “share” blame. And of course with 20 dead this accident was sure to (deservedly) get special treatment.
Yeah I’m with you. There’s definitely some driver error. There’s multiple ways to stop a car, gear limiting, parking brakes, going out of gear entirely and coasting, or if completely at a loss hit “soft targets” like bushes.
father of 4 girls...
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