Cuomo: The limousine that crashed, killing 20 people, in upstate New York State, should not have been on the road

The giant limousine that crashed and killed 20 people outside a country store failed a safety inspection last month and should not have been on the road. The driver did not have a proper driver's license, the governor of New York announced on Monday.

The state decided to close the owner, Prestige Limousine, while federal and US authorities were investigating the cause of Saturday's wreck in Schoharie. The company said that it was pulling its cars off the road while conducting its own investigation of the accident.

Speaking on Monday before the Columbus parade in New York, Cuomo added that the limousine driver – identified by several law enforcement officials in the state, informed the company about the number of people in the city. accident as being Scott Lisnicchia, 53 years old – did not have the appropriate type of license. to operate the vehicle.

The governor said that the cause of the accident in Schoharie, a small town located about 40 km west of Albany, has still not been determined. He added that the state had also issued a cease and desist order to the Limousine Limousine limo company, in order to prevent it from functioning until investigators from the state and federal have finished investigating the accident.

"The owner of the company had no reason to put a vehicle down on the road," Cuomo said.

Prestige Limousine said in a statement that it was conducting a detailed internal investigation to determine the cause of the accident and the measures to be taken to avoid future accidents. The company claims to have voluntarily removed its fleet of vehicles from the road during the investigation and to have met with federal investigators and states.

"Prestige Limousine sends its heartfelt condolences to family members and friends of those who tragically lost their lives on Saturday," said the company in a statement from lawyer Lee Kindlon.

The owner of the limousine company, Shahed Hussain, has been found but is currently out of the country, police said in a press conference Monday afternoon. Three vehicles were seized during the investigation and the authorities are examining the airbag control module in the hilly limousine – essentially the black box.

Hussain had previously worked as an FBI informant after pleading guilty to driving license fraud in 2003, the I-Team reported Monday.

Federal records show that the company has undergone five inspections and four vehicles have been removed from service in the last two years.

The National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency charged with investigating such incidents, conducts its own investigation separately from the state police. At Monday's press conference, NTSB officials said they had already met the limousine company and continue to collect information.

The limousine was heading to a birthday party at Cooperstown's Ommegang Brewery when she crossed a stop sign and crashed into an SUV parked at the Apple Barrel Country Store. All the people in the car – including four sisters, other family members, friends, a New York State Senate employee and the driver – were killed, as well as two people on the outside of the utility vehicle.

The crash "looked like an explosion," said Linda Riley, of nearby Schenectady, who was shopping with her sisters. She was in another car parked at the store, saw a body on the ground and heard people screaming.

Store Manager Jessica Kirby told the New York Times that the limousine was coming down a hill at "probably over 60 mph". In an email to the Associated Press, she complained that the junction where the accident occurred is conducive to accidents.

This is the deadliest transport accident since February 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed in Buffalo, NY, killing 50 people, according to reports. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Robert Sumwalt.

And it seems like it's the deadliest land vehicle accident since a bus carrying patients to retirement home away from Hurricane Rita caught fire in Texas in 2005, killing 23 people .

At a press conference Sunday, officials did not comment on the speed of the limousine, nor on the wearing of the seatbelt by its occupants. The authorities did not disclose the names of the victims nor speculated on the reasons that drove the limo to run the stop sign. Autopsies were in progress.

The vehicle was an after-sales limousine, according to an informed official about it and who requested anonymity. The agent was not allowed to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and therefore refused any identification.

Safety issues on such vehicles have already been raised, particularly after the destruction of a wreck on Long Island in July 2015, during which four women from a winery were killed. They were in a Lincoln Town Car that had been disassembled and rebuilt in an expandable configuration to accommodate more passengers. The limo was trying to turn around and was hit by a van.

A grand jury found that vehicles converted into stretch limousines often lacked safety measures, including side airbags, roll-over protection bars, and accessible emergency exits. This grand jury has asked New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to form a working group on limousine safety.

Limos built in factories are already required to follow strict safety rules, but when cars are converted into limousines, security functions are sometimes removed, resulting in gaps in security protocols, wrote the grand jury .

Copyright Associated Press / NBC New York