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A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 3 OcTOber 2019
NTSB seeks new seat belt requirements for limos after crash

By MICHAEL HILL and TOM ousine safety,” said Jason
KRISHER Levine, executive director
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Fed- of the Center for Auto Safe-
eral inspectors recom- ty, a nonprofit advocacy
mended stricter regulations group.
Wednesday for safety belts In a statement, the highway
and passenger seats in new traffic agency said it wel-
vehicles stretched into lim- comed the safety board’s
ousines, saying tighter stan- “initial analysis” and “looks
dards might have made forward to reviewing the
a difference in an upstate full investigation, data, and
New York limousine crash analysis when they are
that killed 20 people. complete.”
The National Transportation An NTSB spokesman said
Safety Board released the that when it issues recom-
recommendations almost mendations for safety rules
a year after a Ford Excur- before an investigation is
sion SUV that had been finished, it does so with the
modified into a stretch limo hopes that a federal agen-
blew through a T-intersec- cy will start on regulations
tion in rural Schoharie and quickly.
slammed into an earthen The safety board also rec-
embankment. The crash ommended that New York
near a popular country In this Oct. 7, 2018 file photo, a New York state trooper and members of the National Transporta- transportation officials who
store on Oct. 6, 2018, killed tion Safety Board view the scene of a fatal crash that killed 20 people in Schoharie, N.Y. perform inspections ensure
the driver, 17 passengers Associated Press that limo seat belts are
on a birthday outing and functional. New York of-
two pedestrians. be wearing a seat belt at limousine was not subject year. ficials said that’s already
It was the deadliest trans- the time of the crash, the to some occupant safety The NTSB, which investi- standard protocol.
portation disaster in the board said, but the poorly standards that apply to gates crashes and makes In addition, the safety
United States in about a designed belts “would not other classes of vehicles. safety recommendations board recommended that
decade. have provided adequate “Most of the seats were not to other federal and state the National Limousine As-
The agency recommend- protection” anyway. The properly designed to en- agencies, is expected to sociation promote seat belt
ed lap-shoulder belts in driver was wearing his lap sure occupant protection,” examine the cause of the use. The trade group said
all seating positions and and shoulder belt and his NTSB Chairman Robert L. crash in a future report. a statement said it is pre-
that limousine seating sys- air bag deployed, but the Sumwalt said in an inter- The safety belt and seat pared to support “prudent
tems meet minimum crash NTSB determined the front- view with The Associated strength recommendations and consequential safety
safety performance stan- end crash was not surviv- Press. will go to the National High- regulations.”
dards. The recommenda- able from the driver’s seat. Prosecutors in New York al- way Traffic Safety Adminis- An attorney representing
tions would apply only to The report said that “inju- lege the limo company's tration, which has been re- the estate of crash victims
new vehicles stretched ries to occupants within the operator, Nauman Hussain, luctant to issue new safety Adam and Abigail Jack-
into limousines, not to ex- passenger compartment allowed an improperly li- regulations since President son, who was one of four sis-
isting limousines, the NTSB might have been mitigated censed driver to operate Donald Trump took office in ters killed in the crash, said
said. The agency also cited by a combination of ad- an "unserviceable" vehi- 2017. During his campaign, Wednesday that in many
limousine crashes in Illinois equate seat integrity, well- cle. Just weeks before the Trump pledged to cut what ways the report raises more
and New Jersey in making designed passenger lap/ crash, the limo had failed he said are unnecessary questions than it answers.
the national recommenda- shoulder belts, and proper a state inspection that ex- government regulations. “Further, the slowness of the
tions. seat belt use.” amined such things as the “While we concur with process keeps these fami-
In the New York crash, the The vehicle was manufac- chassis, suspension and NTSB’s recommendations, lies in limbo and does not
NTSB found some seats tured as an 8,600-pound brakes. based on the administra- allow them to grieve,” said
separated from their an- (3,900-kilogram) SUV and Hussain has pleaded not tion’s complete failure Cynthia S. LaFave, “but
chorage points in the sig- was modified into a limou- guilty to criminally neg- since day one to issue new rather leaves them with un-
nificantly modified vehicle, sine weighing more than ligent homicide, and his car safety regulations, it is certainty which they must
which included side-fac- 13,000 pounds (5,900 kilo- lawyer has said investiga- unlikely there will be any deal with while still strug-
ing seats. None of the 17 grams), according to the tors rushed to judgment. His significant new federal re- gling to go forward without
passengers appeared to report. Once modified, the trial is scheduled for next quirements regarding lim- their loved ones.”q

Prosecutor: Mexico-to-Oregon ring had $15M in meth, heroin

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — U.S. Federal, state and local egon distributors, who then and the possession of fire- he said. “This amounts to
authorities said Wednes- law enforcement conduct- spread it to stash houses, arms will subject many of roughly 600,000 individual
day they completed drug- ed raids and arrested 20 dealers, couriers and mon- these defendants to very user doses,” Williams said.
trafficking busts in Oregon people, U.S. Attorney Billy ey launderers, authorities long prison sentences _ up The organization would
that involved an interna- Williams said. Ten people said. to life.” routinely change the loca-
tional network of couriers, were already in custody in The operation “marks one At one point, operatives in tion of stash houses, rotate
dealers and stash-house the case, and 11, includ- of the largest takedowns Portland were filling week- vehicles and phones, and
operators who smuggled ing the two suspected top of a drug trafficking orga- ly orders from customers pay individual couriers to
methamphetamine, heroin leaders, remained at large nization in the history of the for more than 75 pounds take time off if they were
and cocaine worth about after being indicted. District of Oregon,” Williams (35 kilograms) of metham- nearing detection by law
$15 million from Mexico to Mexican kingpins smug- said. “The very large quan- phetamine and 55 pounds enforcement, the prosecu-
Portland. gled the drugs to two Or- tities of drugs trafficked (25 kilograms) of heroin, tor said.q