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Wedding cars & hired limousines

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5 years 5 months ago #196492 by Roderick Smith
I haven't seen a 'before' photo, and am not downloading the fragment photos. There is a lot of followup scandal which I am not downloading.
- The vehicle had failed a safety test.
- A passenger had texted that the vehicle sounded terrible.
- The driver was underqualified.
- Factory conversions meet safety standards, but there are lots of conversions which aren't factory.
The surprise is that all 18 passengers were killed; usually there would be some survivors, padded by the others.

Roderick.

Twenty dead after limousine crashes in New York state 8 October 2018. 5 comments.
Schoharie, New York: A limousine on its way to a birthday party ran a stop sign at the end of a highway and plowed into a parked and unoccupied SUV, killing all 18 people in the limo and two pedestrians in the deadliest transportation accident in the US in almost a decade, officials said.
video: Limousine crash in upstate New York kills 20
Twenty people were killed in rural upstate New York when a limousine collided with another vehicle, New York State.
The collision turned a relaxed afternoon into chaos at an upstate New York spot popular with tourists taking in the autumn foliage, with witnesses reporting bodies on the ground and broken tree limbs everywhere.
The 2001 Ford Excursion limousine was travelling south-west on Route 30 in Schoharie, about 270 kilometres north of New York City around 2pm on Saturday, US time, when it failed to stop at a T-junction with state Route 30A, State Police First Deputy Superintendent Christopher Fiore said at a news conference in Latham, New York.
It went across the road and hit an unoccupied vehicle parked at the Apple Barrel Country Store, killing the driver and 17 passengers, as well as two people outside of the vehicle.
The crash "sounded like an explosion," said Linda Riley, of nearby Schenectady, who was on a shopping trip with her sisters and had been in their parked car at the time at the store.
When she got out of her vehicle, she saw a body on the ground and broken tree branches everywhere, she said. People started screaming.
Emergency personnel at the scene of crash involving a limousine in upstate New York.Credit:AP
The store manager, Jessica Kirby, told The New York Times that the limo was coming down a hill at "probably over 60 mp/h [96 km/h]."
In a Facebook post on Saturday, US time, the store thanked emergency responders for their actions. The store posted on Sunday that it was open "and could use your hugs."
Authorities didn't release names of victims or other specifics, but state police set up a hotline for family members. Fiore didn't comment on speed, or whether the occupants of the vehicle had been wearing seat belts.
The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating, said its chairman, Robert Sumwalt.
Route 30 leads steeply downhill to a T-intersection with Route 30A, marked with a stop sign. The Apple Barrel Country Store is on the right.Credit:Google Maps
"This is one of the biggest losses of life that we've seen in a long, long time," he said, the deadliest since February 2009 when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed in Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people.
Lester Andrews, 60, from Rochester, New York, said his two stepsons and a daughter-in-law were among three of the people killed in the crash. They were in the limousine.
The brothers, Axel Steenburg, 29, and Rich Steenburg, 34, lived upstate, he said. Axel Steenburg's wife, Amy, also died in the crash, he said.
Axel and Amy, who live in Amsterdam, New York, and were recently married, had rented the limousine, he said. Some local reports said the limousine rental was related to a wedding but Andrews was unsure.
"They rented the limo with some families and I don't know exactly what they were doing," Andrews said in a phone interview. "There's just a lot of confusion; so many people died."
He said the closest relatives were still awaiting details.
"Their mother is looking for some answers," he said. "She wants to know what happened to her sons."
Debris from the accident is visible at the scene of the accident in Schoharie, NY.Credit:AP
There was no information on the limousine or its integrity. But safety issues on such vehicles have arisen before, most notably after a wreck on Long Island in July 2015 in which four women on a winery tour were killed.
They were in a Lincoln Town Car that had been cut apart and rebuilt in a stretch configuration to accommodate more passengers. The limousine was trying to make a U-turn and was struck by a ute.
A grand jury found that vehicles converted into stretch limousines often don't have safety measures including side-impact air bags, reinforced rollover protection bars and accessible emergency exits. That grand jury called on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to assemble a taskforce on limousine safety.
Limousines built in factories are already required to meet stringent safety regulations, but when cars are converted into limos, safety features are sometimes removed, leading to gaps in safety protocols, the grand jury wrote.
Cuomo released a statement saying, "My heart breaks for the 20 people who lost their lives in this horrific accident on Saturday in Schoharie. I commend the first responders who arrived on the scene and worked through the night to help. State police are working with federal and local authorities to investigate the crash, and I have directed state agencies to provide every resource necessary to aid in this investigation and determine what led to this tragedy."
On Sunday, remnants of the crash were still visible, including tyre tracks on the ground off the road, leading to a small ravine. What appeared to be debris from the car littered the scene: mirror fragments, tail light pieces, a hairbrush.
< www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/twent...20181008-p508ar.html >

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5 years 5 months ago #196495 by Roderick Smith
181008M Herald Sun - Avis fees.

Roderick

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