Feds irked over lack of access to limo in fatal Upstate NY wreck

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board told a New York prosecutor she has hampered the agency’s efforts to determine the cause of the limousine crash that killed 20 people in her rural upstate county, the nation’s deadliest transportation wreck in nearly a decade.

In a letter made public December 20, an NTSB lawyer told Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery that “safety-critical evidence” has been lost because her office had refused to let investigators fully inspect the modified stretch limo that crashed in Schoharie on Oct. 6.

“While we understand the important duties that you are fulfilling, we are gravely concerned that your lack of responsiveness to our requests has seriously impeded our abilities to carry out our Congressionally-mandated duties to properly complete this safety investigation and potentially prevent similar accidents in the future,” NTSB general counsel Kathleen Silbaugh wrote.

The letter specifically mentions concerns over losing the ability to evaluate corrosion on limo parts, including its brakes, or the status of its electrical system at the time of the crash.

Read more: https://www.syracuse.com/state/2018/12/feds-irked-over-lack-of-access-to-limo-in-fatal-upstate-ny-wreck.html