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SCHOHARIE, NY (AP) – A limo on its way to a birthday party blew up a stop sign at the end of a highway and plunged into a parked but unoccupied SUV, killing all 18 people in the limo and two pedestrians in the most deadly means of transport in the United States accident in almost a decade, officials and a parent of one of the victims said Sunday.
The collision turned a relaxed Saturday afternoon into chaos in a popular northern New York State tourist spot that listens to fall foliage, with witnesses reporting ground bodies and breezes. Broken tree branches. An aunt from one of the victims aboard the vehicle said the group was about to celebrate her birthday.
The Ford Excursion 2001 limousine traveled southwest on Route 30 to Schoharie, about 270 kilometers north of New York, at around 14 hours. When he failed to stop at a T-junction with Highway 30A, the first Deputy Superintendent of State Police, Christopher Fiore, said at a press conference in Latham, Ontario. New York State.
He crossed the street and struck an unoccupied vehicle parked in the Apple Barrel store, killing the driver and 17 passengers, as well as two people outside the vehicle.
The crash "looked like an explosion," said Linda Riley, of neighbor Schenectady, who had gone shopping with her sisters and who was in their car parked at the store.
When she got out of her car, she saw a body on the ground, she said. People started screaming.
Store Manager Jessica Kirby told the New York Times that the limousine was coming down a hill at "probably over 60 mph".
On Saturday, in a Facebook message, the store thanked the emergency responders for their actions. The store announced Sunday that it was open "and could use your hugs".
Authorities did not disclose the names of the victims or other details, but the state police set up a direct phone line for family members.
Valerie Abeling, who was crying while crying, said her niece, Erin Vertucci, was among the victims, along with her newly married husband, Shane McGowan, and was going to a friend 's birthday party when the Accident is produced. She said that her own daughter had been invited but could not go.
"She was a beautiful and sweet soul, he was too," said Abeling.
The couple is married at a "beautiful wedding" in June in a location in northern New York State, Abeling said. "They had everything for them."
Vertucci was 34 years old, McGowan was 30 years old. They met through the daughter of Abelel. Vertucci, who grew up in Amsterdam, New York, was administrative assistant at St. Mary's Healthcare in Amsterdam.
At the press conference, Fiore did not comment on the speed, nor on the fact that the occupants of the vehicle were wearing seat belts.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigation, said its chairman, Robert Sumwalt.
"It's one of the biggest casualties we've seen in a very long time," he said, the deadliest since February 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 s & # 39 was crushed in Buffalo, New York State, killing 50 people.
There was no information Sunday on the limousine or its integrity. But safety concerns on these vehicles arose before, especially after the wreckage of a wreck on Long Island in July 2015, during which four women on a tour of vineyards 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 .
Cuomo issued a statement on Sunday saying: "My heart is broken by the 20 people who lost their lives in this horrible accident on Saturday in Schoharie, I congratulate the first responders who arrived on the scene and worked all night. to assist, is working with federal and local authorities to investigate the accident and I have ordered the state agencies to provide all the resources necessary to assist in this investigation and determine what led to this tragedy. "
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Kekis reported from Latham, New York. David Klepper, a writer from the Associated Press in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
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