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Schumer: Stretch Limos Must Not Get A Free Pass When It Comes To Basic Safety Requirements

The Dalai Lama gets into a limousine outside Albany's Crowne Plaza Hotel, headed for an appearance at the Palace Theater. (05 May 09)
WAMC Photo by Dave Lucas
The Dalai Lama gets into a limousine outside Albany's Crowne Plaza Hotel, headed for an appearance at the Palace Theater. (05 May 09)

  Sen. Charles Schumer is urging federal safety officials to raise standards for stretch limousines.

 
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer is urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to immediately upgrade safety standards on stretch limos and other aftermarket altered motor coaches to better protect passengers and make the vehicles more crash resistant. Schumer’s call comes in the wake of a tragic limo crash on Long Island that killed four innocent young women and injured others. Currently, there are significant gaps in the safety standards required for stretch limos and other similar aftermarket altered motor coaches. Schumer will point out those gaps, specifically. He will  push the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to issue new rules on stretch limos in order to make them safer. Currently, the NHTSA does not treat all limos equally. Finally, Schumer will specifically urge the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to begin investigating stretch limo crashes on the ground to determine what might have gone wrong and start making recommendations for safety improvements.
 
(C) 2015 Associated Press contributed to this report.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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