[ April 19, 2024 ]
The owner of the limousine that crashed in Schoharie, killing 20 people, is a former FBI informant who testified in two high-profile terrorism cases, a state official confirmed Monday. Hussain went to work for the FBI after being convicted of federal fraud charges in 2002 in Albany.
NY Post: The limo that crashed upstate, killing 20 people, failed a safety inspection just last month — and its driver wasn’t licensed to be behind the wheel, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday. Of course, they haven’t released the driver’s name.
“The owner of the company — in my opinion, because there’ll be legal consequences — the owner of the company had no business putting [a] failed vehicle on the road. So we’ll go through the whole situation, but sometimes we have the laws, we have the regulations, they’re broken,” the governor said. The vehicle’s operator, Prestige Limousine Chauffeur Service, has had an overall dismal track history on safety, according to records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Story continues below advertisementPrestige botched four of five vehicle inspections in the past 24 months — forcing the carrier to cease operations each time, FMCSA records show. The company’s 80 percent failure rate dwarfs the national average of 20.72 percent, according to the statistics.
The collision turned a relaxed Saturday afternoon into chaos at an upstate New York spot popular with tourists taking in the fall foliage, with witnesses reporting bodies on the ground and broken tree limbs everywhere. An aunt of one of the victims in the vehicle said the group had been on the way to a birthday celebration.
Four sisters, newlyweds celebrating birthday among 20 killed in Hussain limo crash
Times Union: Saturday’s accident, which killed two pairs of newlyweds, four sisters from one family and two brothers from another, was the deadliest U.S. transport crash in over a decade, according to federal authorities.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said the limo involved in Saturday’s crash at the intersection of Route 30A and Route 30 in Schoharie failed a state Department of Transportation inspection last month and should not have been on the road.
Limo that crashed in New York, killing 20, was in bad condition: victim’s aunt
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A victim of a limousine accident that killed 20 people in upstate New York texted a friend that the 17-year-old vehicle “wasn’t in very good condition and sounded terrible” before it fatally crashed on the way to a birthday party, the victim’s aunt told CNN on Monday.
Limo crash kills 20 people in deadliest US transportation accident.
They were young adults — sisters, brothers, old friends and newlyweds — who were celebrating one of their birthday’s in a rented SUV limousine on a drive through rural Schoharie County. Twenty people died Saturday afternoon in the horrific wreck at the intersection of state routes 30 and 30A in the town of Schoharie. The stretch limo, packed with 18 people, drove through a stop sign at the notorious intersection and fatally struck two people in the parking lot of a popular country store, before slamming into an earthen embankment and killing all of the oversized vehicle’s occupants.
Valerie Abeling told CNN her niece, Erin Vertucci and Erin’s husband Shane McGowan, who were married in June, were among the victims in the limo.
Erin and Shane McGowan were just starting a life together after five months of marriage, the Times Union of Rochester, New York reported.
The McGowans were a part of a party of 17 young adults who climbed into the limo to celebrate their friend Amy Steenburg’s 30th birthday, the paper and other media reported.
They were headed to an upstate New York brewery, officials said, until the vehicle ran a stop sign at a highway intersection in Schoharie, New York, about 40 miles (65 km) west of Albany, police and the NTSB said.
It crashed into an unoccupied parked car and hit two pedestrians before coming to a rest in a shallow ravine, officials said. The limo driver, all 17 passengers and the two pedestrians died.
How dos running a stop sign precipitate ramming a PARKED CAR and pedestrians?
FBI informant in terror stings owned limo in deadly crash, state source confirms
Times Union, October 8, 2018:
The owner of the limousine that crashed in Schoharie, killing 18 people on board and two pedestrians is a former FBI informant who testified in two high-profile terrorism cases, a state official confirmed Monday.
Shahed Hussain owns Prestige Limousine in Wilton, the official said. The limousine company is being scrutinized as federal and state investigators try to determine what caused the crash.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said the limo involved in Saturday’s crash at the intersection of Route 30A and Route 30 in Schoharie failed a state Department of Transportation inspection last month and should not have been on the road.
The driver, Cuomo said, did not have a proper license to operate the vehicle.
Prestige Limousine shares a business address with the Crest Inn Suites & Cottages in Wilton, a motel that is also owned by Hussain.
Hussain lived at the motel but on Monday morning, the manager of the motel, Arnie Cornett, said Hussain moved about 18 months ago. He still owns the motel and continues to operate the limo company.
An official said Hussain owns the business but the limo service might be operated by one of his relatives.
Hussain went by the name “Malik” when he owned a home in Loudonville and was used by the FBI in Albany to infiltrate a Central Avenue mosque. Yassin Aref, an Iraqi refugee, was imam of the mosque and the main target of the sting that began in 2003. Aref and an acquaintance, Mohammed Hussain, a Bangladeshi immigrant who owned a pizza shop, were both arrested in 2004 and accused of laundering money for Hussain in connection with a fictitious terror plot.
They were convicted in 2006 and both sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
Hussain went to work for the FBI after being convicted of federal fraud charges in 2002 in Albany. He was taking payments from immigrants, some of whom could not read English, in a scheme to cheat on state exams to obtain driver’s licenses.
In May 2009, Hussain again surfaced as an FBI informant when four men from Newburgh were charged with conspiring to plant explosives outside the Riverdale Jewish Center and Riverdale Temple in New York City. As in the Albany case, Hussain posed as a wealthy businessman and befriended the men before implicating them in a terror plot.
The four Newburgh men, Laguerre Payen, James Cromitie, Onta Williams, and David Williams, were convicted but the FBI’s use of Hussain drew harsh criticism and raised entrapment questions.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records on Prestige Limousine show that the company had two drivers and three vehicles.
A total of five inspections were done of the company’s vehicles over the past 25 months, and 4 were taken out of service as a result, which is a rate of 80 percent failure. The national average is 20 percent.
No previous crashes were listed on the crashes were reported by the FMCSA.
Several years ago, Hussain got in trouble with the town of Wilton for running his limo business out of the back of the hotel. Town officials asked that he store the vehicles in Latham where they had previously been parked.
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24 Comments
5 years ago
Here he is! Shahed Hussain
Informant or not he should have been DEPORTED.
We already knew he was bad news. I also read the driver didn’t have a license. I don’t know it that was true or not.
Bet you, the driver was a relative and a MUSLIM!
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5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
They should all be deported! The “nice” ones are more dangerous than the violent ones–they are here to change everything to Islamic law. That’s the reality.
5 years ago
from what little i’ve heard of this, my first thought was whether muslims were involved. even with only 10 seconds of information, what the democrat-controlled media is putting out there doesn’t add up
5 years ago
Reply to
Rocinante44
The f b i used his as an asset…..and they don’t seem to understand why we don’t trust the f b i .
5 years ago
Reply to
mztore
The dirtbag was given US taxpayer money by the f b I – USD96,000. Now 20 Americans are dead. We’re supposed to trust them, righty? Speaking of dirtbag, Cuomo never mentioned the moslem connection here.
5 years ago
And it begins…..
5 years ago
Hussain fled Pakistan after being accused of murder. Um, did anyone in the U.S. immigration office bother to check that before letting him waltz right on in. Wouldn’t that have raised a red flag? This is EXACTLY the type of person we do NOT need in the U.S., yet they seem to have head of the line privileges. I’m sure the FBI will cut off his informant salary after this. Or not.
5 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
He was accused, was it investigated when he came here? If not, why was he allowed in? Because the f b i wanted an informant. Cutting off his salary is an “or not”…..they won’t.
5 years ago
Another colossal FBI blunder. They are supposed to be protecting us, not facilitating mass murder of americans.
5 years ago
Reply to
cylde
The FBI is corrupt. It is Obama’s FBI. Now that he’s gone, the rabid doges are off the leash. No control, doing what they want. Violating the constitution and collecting data on conservative Americans.
5 years ago
Never hire a limo from a muslim 🙂
5 years ago
Reply to
AlgorithmicAnalyst
Never hire a muslim for anything. You put your life and your head at risk when you work with one.
5 years ago
All of the Muslims should be thrown out of America any that want to stay can’t no Muslims period
5 years ago
The msm are trying to cover up this case by claiming it was the limo’s fault.:
“Crash that killed 20 raises concerns over “Frankenstein laws” for limos”
CBSNews
Saturday’s deadly crash in Schoharie, New York in which a limo driver, 17 passengers and two pedestrians were killed is raising new safety concerns for the limousine industry. It’s believed to be the deadliest transportation accident of any kind in the U.S. since 2009.
But there has been a deadly limo accident every year in this country since at least 2000. Those crashes are blamed for at least 68 deaths.
A limousine filled with people can be its own inherent danger. People are celebrating and often not wearing seatbelts, which can result in passengers being thrown around in the event of a crash.
5 years ago
If the picture of the limo in the article is real,I don’t understand HOW could a wreck kill EVERYBODY in the limo.It appears that most of the rear compartment isn’t heavily damaged,or really damaged much at all.
There were NO injuries,just deaths?
From a front end impact.
Sorry,I ain’t buying it.
5 years ago
So much corruption in our government…
5 years ago
Crest Inn….hmmm, appropriate name for a motel owned by a Hussain.
5 years ago
Right off at hearing this news – my 1 st thought was “terror” attack – only this time all the victims except 2 were inside the vehicle! Only I pictured a stretch limo, not a van.
America must expunge these murderous barbarians – completely!!
5 years ago
Was this deliberate? Rather than driving into a crowd of people, he had a vehicle full of people who couldn’t get away. Stay the hell away from Muslims, they are dangerous. I wonder if the FBI ever read the part of the Koran that says death to infidels? Also, what is the FBI using a criminal taxi driver for? All they can expect is taqiyya.
5 years ago
Reply to
ninetyninepct
FBI doesn’t give a crap about Americans. Money changes hands. That’s all they care about.
5 years ago
The people who financed this dirtbag with taxpayer money should be driven off a cliff in one of his vehicles.
