Today marks the fifth anniversary of a devastating limo crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people. WAMC’s Ian Pickus has more.
A weekend birthday outing quickly turned to tragedy on that 2018 day when the stretch limousine barreled down a hill in Schoharie at over 100 miles-per-hour as its front brakes failed, killing all 17 passengers, the driver, and two bystanders.
The vehicle owned by Prestige Limousine had been ordered off the road multiple times due to safety violations.
The crash still haunts people like Mary Ashton, who lost her 34-year-old son Michael Ukaj – a former Marine. She spoke this spring about her son, who had been celebrating his 34th birthday at the time.
“My son's life meant something. And as I found out a week and a half ago, he was a hero in Iraq. And now, I can't even say, ‘Congratulations, Michael. I'm really proud of you.’ It’s just a horrible thing. It's just a horrible thing,” said Ashton.
The company’s operator, Nauman Hussain, was sentenced to 5-15 years in prison for 20 counts of manslaughter this May.
Grieving parent Kevin Cushing was pleased by the sentencing, but said it doesn’t bring back his son.
“I'm happy for them. I'm happy for us. It's still not closure. We will never get closure from an accident like this or a decision like this,” he said.
Patrick Cushing was one of many young adults from the Capital Region in the crash, some of whom had just recently been married.
Hussain and his company, which is owned by his father Shahed, are also targets of civil suits by families of the victims, who have also sued Mavis Discount Tire, for falsifying brake work on the vehicle and providing an unauthorized inspection sticker, and New York state for letting the vehicle stay on the road.
Times Union reporter Larry Rulison has reported on the aftermath of the crash ever since October 2018.
“It could have all been prevented if the state had just yanked that limo, taken the plates right then and there when they found out that Nauman Hussain had not registered the limo and was basically running an illegal limo operation,” he said. “It could have been avoided, and so many young lives lost, that could have all been avoided.”
The tragedy inspired a wave of limo safety reforms, with a number of New York state regulations being passed in January 2020 and federal safety measures being included in 2021’s infrastructure bill.
Congressman Paul Tonko of New York’s 20th District hails from Amsterdam, like many of the victims, and credited the families for pressing for the reforms.
“They gathered support, prepared for hearings, called and wrote to members of Congress and staff members. They shared their stories, painfully, time and time again, and refused to allow inaction,” he said.
Jill Richardson Perez lost her son Matthew Coons. After the federal reforms were passed in November 2021, she vowed to look out for children who lost their parents on the day of the crash.
“There are children that have been left behind from this tragedy that some of us have also made a promise. We promised to look out for their futures,” Perez said.
Cushing is among the family members who want to see the Grieving Families Act, which would entitle people like those affected by the Schoharie tragedy to receive monetary damages, become law. The bill was vetoed in February by Governor Kathy Hochul before being passed at the end of the legislative session.
