Investigators are calling Saturday's limo crash in upstate New York the nation's deadliest transportation accident in  nearly a decade .

Police say all 18 people inside the limo died when its driver  failed to stop  at an intersection and hit a parked car roughly 40 miles west of Albany.

Two pedestrians were also killed.  A family member of one of the victims told CNN that the group in the limousine had been heading to a brewery to celebrate a friend's 30th birthday when the accident occurred.  The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board called the crash "horrific"  and told reporters , "This is one of the biggest losses of life that we've seen in a long, long time." He said it's the deadliest transportation incident since a 2009 airplane crash near Buffalo, New York, that killed 50 people.  Additional reporting from  Newsy affiliate CNN .