Limo company operator won't face jail time for NY crash that killed 20

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Canandaigua Daily Messenger

Limo company operator won't face jail time for NY crash that killed 20

Jon Campbell New York State Team
Published 11:38 a.m. ET Sep. 2, 2021 Updated 11:39 a.m. ET Sep. 2, 2021

SCHOHARIE - The operator of a Saratoga County limousine company will not serve jail time for his role in a 2018 wreck that killed 20 people, most of whom were on their way to a birthday party at a brewery.

Nauman Hussain, 31, is due in Schoharie County Court on Thursday afternoon to plead guilty to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide in connection with the Oct. 6 crash, which at the time was the deadliest road wreck in 13 years.

Hussain's plea agreement -- signed by him, his attorney, Joseph Tacopina and Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery -- calls for a sentence of five years probation and 1,000 hours of community service.

The deal also calls for Hussain to forfeit his Fifth Amendment rights in any civil proceedings, requiring him to testify under oath in the various lawsuits filed by family members of the crash's victims.

He will also be prohibited from owning or operating a commercial transportation company during his probation, according to the plea deal.

Prestige Limousine was the owner of a 2001 Ford Excursion stretch limo that barreled through a "T" intersection at the bottom of a steep hill in the rural town of Schoharie, about 30 miles west of Albany.

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A 2001 Ford Excursion limousine crashed in Schoharie in 2018, killing 20. Photo Provided/NTSB

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Jon Campbell is the New York State Team editor for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at [e-mail] or on Twitter at @JonCampbellGAN. https://twitter.com/JonCampbellGAN

Read more: https://www.mpnnow.com/story/news/2021/09/02/ny-limo-crash-nauman-hussain-plea-deal/5695134001/

[2naSalit]

1. Bring on the civil suits then...

What a travesty.

[Ron Green]

3. I still don't understand how not one person in the car survived the crash.

[Donkees]

4. 'The cause of death for all 20 victims is listed as multiple severe traumatic blunt force injuries'

https://dailygazette.com/2018/10/19/schoharie-crash-autopsy-results-released/

All the passengers died nearly instantly when the limo crashed into a ditch after reaching speeds of more than 100 mph. Two bystanders and the driver died as well.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Nauman-Hussain-to-appear-in-Schoharie-July-7-16203929.php

[Ron Green]

5. I understand that, but the presence of so many bodies in the space during the deceleration

would seem to provide pockets of survivability. It just seems so statistically unlikely that every person’s injury was fatal.

[Donkees]

6. I'm remembering that none were wearing seat belts, not sure about the limo rolling ...

down the hill after it hit the ditch and ended up near the woods (?) I know we had several DU threads on the accident back then, and that question about none of the passengers surviving was discussed.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. District attorney refuses to address outrage after limo case went sideways

NEWS

District attorney refuses to address outrage after limo case went sideways

Larry Rulison
Sep. 3, 2021 | Updated: Sep. 4, 2021 5:49 a.m.

SCHOHARIE — Susan Mallery stood speaking alone with a colleague behind the velvet ropes that had been set up in the high school gym here as part of a makeshift courtroom Thursday. ... Mallery, the district attorney for Schoharie County, had just watched as Nauman Hussain pleaded guilty in the deaths of the 20 victims of the October 2018 limousine crash that occurred just 3 miles down the road from where she was standing.

None of the family members of the victims, many of whom had just poured their hearts out in more than two hours of gut-wrenching testimonials about losing their loved ones, were rushing to thank Mallery. ... In fact, many of them had directed their anger at her during their emotional outpouring for what they saw as apparent missteps in the case that led to Mallery's decision to accept a no-jail plea deal instead of going to trial.

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Most of the issues revolve around evidence that Mallery's office had uncovered in the wake of Hussain's indictment about his interactions with the Mavis Discount Tires shop in Saratoga Springs where Hussain serviced the 34-foot stretch Ford Excursion limo that crashed.

The evidence included testimony from the store's since-fired manager who told investigators that the store had regularly falsified invoices for customers in order to meet certain company sales goals - including invoices for brake work that Hussain had requested after the Excursion failed a March 2018 Department of Transportation roadside inspection in part due to bad rear brakes.

That's critical because the likely cause of the crash was determined to be brake failure — and Mallery's case essentially centered around proving that Hussain had failed to properly maintain the vehicle and ignored orders from the DOT to keep the Excursion off the road until the brakes were fixed and other safety issues were resolved.

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Written By
Larry Rulison

Reach Larry on https://www.facebook.com/ReporterLarryRulison https://twitter.com/larryrulison
Larry Rulison has been a reporter for the Albany Times Union since 2005. Larry's reporting for the Times Union has won several awards for business and investigative journalism from the New York State Associated Press Association and the New York News Publishers Association. Contact him at 518-454-5504 or [e-mail].

[Mysterian]

8. The judge should throw out this plea deal

and let a jury decide the appropriate sentence.