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By Peter Szekely
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Family lawyers of a limo driver who died with 19 other people in an accident in upstate New York State and the owner of the vehicle are fighting over the cause of the most murderous US transport accident for almost ten years.
The New York State Police stated that the driver, 53 year old Scott Lisinicchia, did not have the proper license to drive the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine that crashed to Schoharie (New York) Saturday night and that the vehicle had not been inspected last month.
A Prestige Limousine lawyer, owner of the vehicle, said that the security breaches that led to the failure of last month's inspection were largely minor and did not provoke the ## 147 ## ########################################################################### 39; accident.
"I do not think it was these offenses that led to the tragedy," lawyer Lee Kindlon told CBS News in an interview.
Reuters could not reach Prestige Limousine for comments and the phone number listed by the company was disconnected.
But a lawyer in the driver's family said the limo had problems.
"The family thinks that he unwittingly received a vehicle that could not be able to roll on the road or be safe for any of its occupants," said the lawyer, George Longworth, in a statement. a statement.
Lisinicchia's twin brother, Keith, said Scott was an experienced and conscientious driver with the proper license.
"I know he's always kept his license, I mean it's a CDL license (commercial driver's license)," Keith Lisinicchia told WRGB TV in Albany, New York.
Before the limousine crashed on the way to the birthday party, one of the victims, Erin McGowan, wrote to a friend that the limousine seemed to have engine problems, reported the New York Times.
Valerie Abeling, McGowan's aunt, told CNN that her niece had texted a friend to tell her that the company had sent the limousine to replace a broken down vehicle.
The three vehicles belonging to Prestige Limousine, based in Gansevoort, New York, were violated when they were inspected last month, as shown by US Department of Transportation records.
The inspection of the limousine that crashed revealed several infractions including anti-lock brake malfunction indicators and wipers in poor or defective condition.
The people killed in the accident included two newlywed couples, four sisters from one family and two brothers from another.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered that flags in the state were reduced to half staff, adding on Twitter that it was "difficult to understand the extent of this tragedy".
At the Columbus Day parade in New York on Monday, Cuomo told reporters that Prestige Limousine was sending an order to cease and refrain from stopping operations until what the authorities are investigating the accident.
State Police and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who are investigating the cause of the accident, will review the safety rules applicable to limousines, whose passengers are not required to wear the seatbelt of security.
The vehicle triggered a stop at an intersection of the highway at Schoharie, about 65 km west of Albany, police and the NTSB said.
He crashed into an unoccupied parked car and two pedestrians before stopping in a shallow ravine, officials said, killing the driver, 17 passengers and two pedestrians.
(Report by Peter Szekely, Gabriella Borter and Joseph Ax in New York, edited by Lisa Shumaker, Bernadette Baum and Bill Berkrot)
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