Limo crash in Schoharie County kills 20; Firm owner charged with negligence

Before we get into the meat of this story I'd like to say first and foremost that this whole thing is happening very close by to where I live; the crash itself happened in an area roughly twenty to thirty minutes worth of driving away from my home, and the person arrested has been taken to the county jail of the same town I live in. It's almost surreal for me to be so close to the site of a major tragedy, and I've heard of people both at work and at school talking about this at length. With that out of the way, let's discuss what information is available to us:

-A limo carrying seventeen people returning from a birthday party crashed into another car, killing everyone on board, the driver, and two bystanders
-The limo company which rented out the car was previously cited for failures to maintain proper maintenance and safety protocols in maintaining its vehicles
-The company owner has previously been arrested for fraud and was at one point an FBI informant who helped to break up two different terrorist plots
-The company owner fled the country to his native country of Pakistan and now his son, the firm's operator, has been arrested and charged with negligent homicide

More info in this article, with the text reproduced in full below: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/limo-firm’s-operator-is-charged-in-fatal-upstate-new-york-crash/ar-BBOcBDk?ocid=spartanntp

Quote :

ALBANY — In the days after a limousine crashed in upstate New York and killed 20 people, investigators quickly bore down on the limousine company, which had a record of repeated safety violations. Investigators made their first move at culpability on Wednesday, arresting the firm’s operator outside Albany and charging him with criminally negligent homicide.

Nauman Hussain, a son of Shahed Hussain, the owner of Prestige Limousine, had been issued written violations earlier this year after vehicle inspections by the State Police and the state Department of Transportation, said George P. Beach II, the superintendent of the State Police.

The driver whom Mr. Hussain hired — Scott Lisinicchia, who died in the accident — “should not be operating the type of vehicle involved in Saturday’s crash,” the superintendent said.
Mr. Hussain had also ignored orders from the Transportation Department that the limousine should not be driven and “should not have been on the road,’’ Superintendent Beach said.
“The sole responsibility for that motor vehicle being on the road this Saturday rests with Nauman Hussain,” he added.
Mr. Hussain, 28, was taken into custody by the State Police during a traffic stop on a highway in Watervliet, N.Y. He was charged with one count of criminally negligent homicide involving all 20 crash victims, Superintendent Beach said.
He said it would be up to the Schoharie County district attorney, Susan J. Mallery, to decide whether to seek additional charges. Ms. Mallery is expected to present the case to a grand jury.


Superintendent Beach would not say whether Mr. Hussain’s father could face charges, but noted that the investigation was continuing.
The arrest came four days after a stretch limousine, rented out by Prestige, ran through a stop sign in Schoharie, N.Y., a town about 40 miles west of Albany, struck two pedestrians and a parked car, and landed in a shallow ravine. All 17 passengers and the limousine’s driver were killed, as were two pedestrians.
The arrest is the latest development in a fast-moving investigation focusing on the limousine — a 2001 Ford Excursion — that had repeatedly failed inspections, including one as recently as last month.
The company, which was doing business out of a low-budget hotel north of Albany, has been visited multiple times by State Police investigators, who are also seeking the elder Mr. Hussain, a former F.B.I. informant.
[The limo company owner in the crash was revealed as an F.B.I. informant, a recruiter of terrorists and a fraudster.]
The crash on Saturday was the worst transportation-related accident in the country in nine years, dating to a 2009 plane crash outside Buffalo that killed 50 people.
Among the victims in Saturday’s were 17 young friends — all between the ages of 24 and 34 — who had been traveling in the limousine for a birthday party trip at a local brewery.

In remarks to reporters outside a State Police barracks Wednesday afternoon, a lawyer for the limousine company, Lee Kindlon, said the State Police and other authorities were “jumping the gun” in arresting and charging Mr. Hussain.
“Even the most simple investigation, done well, takes months,” Mr. Kindlon said, adding that his client would plead not guilty to the charges. “And now because of the actions taken today, that time frame is compressed.”
Mr. Kindlon said Mr. Hussain had met on Monday with investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, the State Police and the state’s Transportation Department and was asked to turn over certain documents about the company and the vehicle.
The process of collecting those materials was underway, Mr. Kindlon said when he received a “panicked call” from his client’s family at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday, telling him that Mr. Hussain was being arrested. Mr. Kindlon said there had been no request by the authorities to speak with his client’s father.
The crash has also raised questions about the regulation and oversight of stretch limousines, specially made vehicles that are built from former cars or sport utility vehicles and often do not have to meet strict federal safety requirements. And while drivers of such elongated vehicles are required to wear seatbelts, passengers in the back are not.
The limousine that crashed had failed two inspections by state officials in the last seven months, inspection reports show. Both failures resulted in the limousine being ordered off the road until the defects inspectors found were fixed.
In the latest inspection, conducted in early September in Saratoga Springs and lasting 43 minutes, the limousine was found to have 18 seats but to be certified to carry no more than 10 passengers, including the driver.
It also was cited for a dangling brake line that could make contact with one of its tires. The limousine’s warning light for its hydraulic-braking system was staying on, the report showed. The owner was also faulted for not addressing problems noted in an earlier inspection.
An inspection report on the same limousine in March found that same brake warning light remaining lit and that its braking system was not working properly. The limousine was ordered out of service because its rear emergency exit window and a right-side emergency door were inoperable.
Normally, owners are given 15 days to correct the defects found in an inspection or risk fines. A federal database of motor vehicle inspections does not indicate that state officials inspected the limousine again in the four weeks before the disastrous crash last weekend.
Federal safety officials investigating the Schoharie crash have described the accident as a “high-energy impact,” which drove the limousine’s engine into the driver’s side. State officials have said the 2001 Ford Excursion was not supposed to be on the road, having failed inspections, including tests of its brakes.
The charges against Mr. Hussain were announced by State Police Major Robert E. Patnaude, the commander of Troop G, which is based in Latham, N.Y., and is investigating the crash.
The State Police have made clear that they would like to interview the older Mr. Hussain, 62.
He has a curious history, having worked as an informant, helping to convict two leaders of an Albany mosque in a 2004 plot to import a missile and assassinate a Pakistani diplomat, as well as a case in 2009 involving a conspiracy to bomb synagogues in the Bronx. In both cases, the attacks were thwarted.
But his record is also filled with criminal acts, including fraudulently obtaining driver’s licenses, and financial troubles — he filed for bankruptcy in 2003 after accumulating debts of $177,000. That bankruptcy case was settled in 2007.
A year later his family started Prestige Limousine.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kindlon said Mr. Hussain had been in Pakistan for some time to deal with health issues. He said the older Mr. Hussain had been much more involved in the day-to-day running of the company than his son, who he said mainly helped market the company and answer business calls.
He also suggested that state officials should have addressed the road where the crash happened, which residents had long said was dangerous.
“This road was a problem,” Mr. Kindlon said. “It was a known problem to the State of New York.”
He added that Mr. Hussain’s father was “worried sick about his own son” and may return to the United States to assist in the investigation.
“I know that should we need him,” Mr. Kindlon said, “he will come here.”

Photos of the crash

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*Does not include all victims*

Mh_12rm_66 wrote:

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It'll never stop creeping me out that I've been to that store in the pic several times before.

Ironic how there's all these people saying we need more gun control when a car crash kills more people than Cruz did.