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Four sisters and four family members who were among the 20 people killed in a limousine accident in upstate New York last week were buried Saturday.
The group was about to go to a birthday party with several other friends on October 6 when their stretched limousine went through a stop sign and crashed into an unoccupied SUV at Schoharie, in the middle of the day. State of New York, 43 km west of Albany. The 18 occupants of the limo, including the driver, were killed, along with two pedestrians standing nearby, authorities said.
State and federal authorities are investigating the accident, which is the deadliest transport accident in the United States since August 2009, according to Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
AP
A combined funeral service was held Saturday afternoon at St. Stanislaus Church in Amsterdam for eight of the victims inside the limo: Allison King, 31, of Ballston Spa, New York; sister Abigail Jackson, 34, and her husband Adam Jackson, 34, from Amsterdam, New York; Sister Mary Dyson, 33, and her husband Robert Dyson, 34, of Watertown, New York; his sister Amy Steenburg, 29, and her husband Axel Steenburg, 29, from Amsterdam, New York, as well as her brother, Richard Steenburg, 34, from Johnstown, New York.
"These were special girls," said Valerie Abeling, the aunt of the four sisters, at WTEN-TV, an ABC subsidiary located in Albany. "I loved them very much.My brother said that he had lost most of his family."
The group was celebrating the 30th anniversary of Amy Steenburg, family members told ABC News. She had just married her husband in June.
The limousine involved in the accident caused a safety inspection to fail on 4 September, in part because of a malfunction indicator in the ABS brake system, according to records recorded by ABC News.
AP
A limousine company lawyer, Prestige Limousine, told ABC News earlier this week that the vehicle had failed the safety inspection for minor issues.
However, the New York State Transportation Department disputed this assertion.
"The claim that the limousine was allowed to hit the road following the September inspection is categorically false," said Joseph Morrissey, spokesman for the transportation department of the United States. State of New York, in a statement. "The vehicle was inspected and the owner was warned not to drive it and the vehicle was taken out of service."
Hans Pennink / AP
The driver, 53 year old Scott Lisincchia, of Lake George, NY, did not have the driver's license required to drive a vehicle that could hold more than 15 people, said a responsible for law enforcement at ABC News.
Lisincchia had previously informed his wife of problems with the vehicle, according to Richard Burke, the spokesman for the family. Burke said that Lisincchia's wife "told me that he had complained to her about the condition of certain vehicles".
John Carl Dnnibale / The Albany Times Union via AP
The operator of the limousine company, Nauman Hussain, was arrested Wednesday and charged with homicide by criminal negligence, police said. He was charged with handing over a defective vehicle on the road and hiring a driver whom he knew was not properly licensed to drive, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Hussain pleaded not guilty and was released on bail Wednesday night.
Aaron Katersky of ABC News contributed to this report.
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