USA: Limo Crash Kills 20 in Upstate New York; Nation’s Deadliest Accident in 9 Years

[Guest Nicole]

SCHOHARIE, N.Y. — It was an intersection of two highways, one a steep downhill road, that residents had long warned was notoriously dangerous.

On Saturday afternoon, their worst fears were realized: A limousine lost control, careening through the intersection and striking an empty car. The crash killed all 18 people in the white limousine and two pedestrians in an accident that left deep tire tracks in the ground and a small upstate New York town reeling.

“That limo was coming down that hill probably over 60 miles per hour,” said Jessica Kirby, 36, the manager of the Apple Barrel Country Store, where she said customers were hit near the parking lot. “All fatal.”

“I don’t want to describe the scene,” she added. “It’s not something I want to think about.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/nyregion/wedding-limo-crash-schoharie-ny.html

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

" .... Federal investigators arrived on Sunday and were scouring the scene for clues about the cause of the crash. The New York State Police said autopsies were underway on all the passengers and the driver of the limousine, including toxicology, though they cautioned that the investigation was in its early stages..... "

The only reason you autopsy accident victims IS toxicology.

These people  often "partied" together.

[admin]

18 people died in the limo (17 passengers, plus the driver), which was reportedly traveling at high speed down a country road, when the road dead-ended into a cafe parking lot, then a ravine.

This was a Ford Excursion stretch-conversion “party bus” style limo, so we can assume 17 passengers were not wearing seat belts while partying in the back.

Two pedestrians were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and were struck and killed, when the limo was said to have blazed through the stop sign at Route 30 and 30A, continuing past the perpendicular roadway, hitting a parked car, then careening down a shallow ravine, where it came to rest, apparently right-side-up, (based on photos of the scene).

Eyewitness accounts said the limo may have been going as fast as 60MPH when it hit the ravine, so you can imagine the kind of forces passengers would suffer (hitting a wall of Earth at 60MPH, while not wearing seatbelts).

There was no evidence of fire in the photos that have been released to the press to this point.

This NY Post article has video of a tow truck pulling the mangled limo out of the ravine, as well as a quick clip of the path the limo cut in the grass as it left the roadway.

You can see how the front of the vehicle is utterly destroyed, and we would assume all the passengers flew forward upon the abrupt impact, suffering fatal trauma.

Limo had unlicensed driver, failed inspection before deadly crash