Limo Failed Inspection Before Horrific Crash, Driver Lacked Proper License

The investigation into the Schoharie limo crash—the deadliest transportation incident in America in nearly a decade—continues Tuesday, as the names of the 20 victims emerge alongside new details about the driver and the vehicle itself.

In total, 17 passengers died when a man who lacked the appropriate license to operate a limo crashed one into a parked car on Saturday afternoon. The vehicle was supposed to be taking the group to Ommegang Brewery to celebrate the 30th birthday of a woman named Amy Steenburg. Originally, the friends had booked a party bus, but when it broke down en route to picking them up, the company—Prestige Limousine—sent a reportedly dilapidated limousine in its place. The driver, Scott Lisinicchia, careened through a stop sign near the Apple Barrel Country Store on Route 30. Traveling nearly 60 mph, he continued into the parking lot, smashing into an unoccupied parked car and fatally hitting two pedestrians. Lisinicchia also died in the crash.

According to the NY Post and the Times Union, the victims included Steenburg and her husband, Axel Steenburg, plus his brother Richard; Amy's sisters Mary King Dyson, Abigail King Jackson—along with their respective husbands, Robert Dyson and Adam Jackson—and Allison King; newlyweds Shane and Erin McGowan; and friends Amanda Halse, Patrick Cushing (Erin McGowan's cousin), Michael Ukaj, Savannah DeVonne, Matthew Coons, Amanda Rivenburg, and Rachael Cavosie.

Brian Hough, an assistant professor of geology at SUNY Oswego, and his father-in-law, James Schnurr, were standing in the parking lot and killed as a result of the crash. "He's just a very, warmhearted wonderful person," Artra Hough, the victim's mother, told the NY Post. "He's a great father, a great son, and so now this is the second son we've lost in four years."

In Amsterdam, NY, on Monday night, hundreds of people attended vigils in memory of the victims.

On Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the limousine had recently failed a state inspection and wasn't even roadworthy, confirming texts Erin McGowan sent from inside the vehicle before the crash. Explaining it was in an obvious state of disrepair, she told one friend that "the motor is making everyone deaf." Indeed, the NY Times reports that Prestige has a dubious track record. The owner, former FBI informant Shahed Hussain, operates his business out of a "low-budget hotel," per the Times, and seems to have dispatched a vehicle with unreliable brakes and a shoddy suspension system. According to the NY Daily News, the car itself—a 2001 Ford Excursion—may have been illegally modified into limo form and did not have state clearance to be driving in the first place. Police had reportedly been looking at both the company and the limo in question even before the crash.

Limos, according to the Times, are inherently unsafe vehicles: Regular cars or SUVs that get stretched to maximum capacity outside the manufacturer's eye, they are not subject to the same federal safety regulations as your average sedan. And the T-bone intersection where the crash occurred—where Route 30 meets Route 30A—has also been characterized as "very dangerous."

But the driver, Lisinicchia, did not have the commercial drivers license with a passenger endorsement he would have needed to legally operate the limo. And according to the NY Post, he also has two substance-related arrests in his past, once of which stems from an incident where authorities caught him smoking weed behind the wheel. His stepson, Cicero Richards, told the Daily News that Lisinicchia had been hesitant to go out on the job on Saturday because of Prestige vehicles' junky nature.

Prestige, which reportedly uses the names Hasy Limousine and Saratoga Luxury Limousines, has been hit with a cease-and-desist order that will halt operations during the ongoing investigation. In a statement CNN published Monday, the company stated that it had "voluntarily taken [its] fleet of vehicles off the road" and that it "extends its deepest condolences to the family members and friends of those who tragically lost their lives on Saturday. We are performing a detailed internal investigation to determine the cause of the accident and the steps we can take in order to prevent future accidents."