Operator of Limo Service Is Convicted in 2018 Accident That Killed 20
SCHOHARIE, N.Y. — It was a staggering and seemingly incomprehensible tragedy: a Saturday afternoon limo ride gone terribly wrong, leaving 20 people dead, including a large group of young friends and relatives headed to a birthday party.
On Wednesday, the operator of the company that rented out that vehicle — a 31-foot-long, five-ton 2001 Ford Excursion stretch limousine — was found guilty on 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter in the October 2018 accident.
The operator, Nauman Hussain, could face up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on May 31.
The verdict, announced to an emotionally charged courtroom and after less than a day of deliberation by a jury in Schoharie County, west of Albany, caps a nearly five-year ordeal for the families of the victims, which included all 17 passengers, the driver and two pedestrians outside a cafe and store in Schoharie, N.Y.
A 2020 report by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the limousine’s brake system failed on Route 30 outside Schoharie, causing the vehicle to career down a long hill to the valley below, eventually reaching more than 100 m.p.h., flying toward an intersection with another busy rural byway.
Source: The New York Times
