The operator of a New York limo rental company whose vehicle was involved in a historically deadly crash last weekend was arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide, according to state police.
Authorities said Nauman Hussain, operator of Prestige Limo, in Gansevoort, was taken into custody following a traffic stop Wednesday, four days after the Saturday afternoon crash, which killed 20.
No further details were released, but police will have a press conference at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
An attorney for Prestige could not immediately be reached for comment. Representatives with the company have not responded to previous requests for comment.
Both police and the National Safety Transportation Board are probing the circumstances of Saturday’s crash in Schoharie, after a stretch limo carrying 17 passengers and a driver plowed downhill through a T-intersection of two state highways.
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All 18 people in the vehicle were killed. Two pedestrians also died after the limo struck an empty vehicle in the parking lot of an adjacent business.
The crash was the deadliest transportation-related incident in the United States in nine years.
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The driver has been identified as 53-year-old Scott Lisinicchia. His background and the history of Prestige Limo have both come under intense scrutiny as investigators work to determine what led to the crash: If it was driver or mechanical error, some road factor or a combination of issues.
The limo passengers killed on Saturday were close friends, relatives and couples. They had hired the vehicle to take them to a local brewery to celebrate the 30th birthday of fellow passenger Amy Steenburg.
• With reporting by CAITLIN KEATING
