Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara is continuing to push for more limousine safety measures in the wake of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) releasing its initial report on the 2018 Schoharie County limousine crash that claimed the lives of 20 people.
“The National Transportation Safety Board’s report emphasizes the glaring flaws in limousine safety that I’ve been pushing to fix since last year,” Santabarbara said. “The tragedy of the Schoharie County crash made apparent the need for updated laws governing stretch limousines and the report confirms that we cannot wait to close these dangerous loopholes. This past session I’ve introduced a number of key measures to improve safety in the limo industry, I urge my fellow state legislators to support these bills; they can prevent tragedies like this from happening again.”
The NTSB released its initial report on the Schoharie County limousine crash earlier today. The report shows that while none of the 17 passengers in the stretch limousine were wearing seatbelts, the vehicle’s lap belt systems were nevertheless inadequate and inaccessible. The NTSB makes several recommendations to increase safety for passengers in limousines, including seatbelt improvements. The NTSB also recommends that the state legislature adopt a law requiring rear passengers to wear seatbelts.
In the State Assembly, Santabarbara introduced legislation earlier this year to extend seatbelt requirements to passenger vehicles that carry nine or more passengers and require these vehicles to have anti-intrusion bars and window exits (A.8475).
Santabarbara has introduced several other bills to improve limousine safety, including measures to impose stricter oversight on stretch limousines and drivers and establish methods to report safety issues (A.8214, A.8171-A, A.8172-A, A.8476, A.5774-A, A.7789, A.8302).
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