Judge rejects no-prison deal in NY deadly limo crash that killed 20
20 people killed in limo crash
-- A limousine carrying four sisters, other relatives and friends to a birthday celebration blew through a stop sign and slammed into a parked SUV outside a store in upstate New York, killing all 18 people in the limo and two pedestrians, officials and victims' relatives said Sunday.
NEW YORK - A judge rejected a plea agreement that would have meant no prison time for the operator of a limousine company involved in a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York, drawing applause and tears Wednesday from victims’ relatives who packed the court.
Judge Peter Lynch called the agreement "fundamentally flawed."
Prosecutors and lawyers for Nauman Hussain had reached a deal a year ago that would have spared him prison time, angering the families of the people killed in 2018 when brake failure sent a stretch limo full of birthday revelers hurtling down a hill.
Hussain, who operated Prestige Limousine, had been charged with 20 counts each of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree manslaughter in what was the deadliest U.S. transportation disaster in a decade.
After he was charged Hussain's lawyer said that the man wasn't guilty and that police were rushing to judgment.
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His company, Prestige Limousine, came under intense scrutiny after the crash outside Albany killed two pedestrians and 18 people who were riding in a super-stretch limo.
Police said Hussain hired a driver who shouldn't have been behind the wheel of such a car, and the vehicle shouldn't have been driven after state inspectors deemed it "unserviceable" a month earlier.
Related: Memorial for deadly limo crash in Schoharie County
A 19-seater limo ran a stop sign and plowed into a parked SUV at the bottom of a long hill in Schoharie, about 25 miles west of Albany.
The crash appeared to be the nation's deadliest traffic accident since a bus full of Texas nursing home patients caught fire while fleeing 2005's Hurricane Rita, killing 23.
The agreement called for Hussain to plead guilty only to the homicide counts, resulting five years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service.
The state has a package of new limousine safety laws that went into effect after the crash, including one that would require vehicles converted into stretch limousines have at least two safety blets for the front seat and one safety belt in the rear for each passenger.
With the Associated Press