What to Know
- Gov. Cuomo issued limousine safety reform proposals, including an outright ban on "stretch" limos from operating in the state
- The proposed safety reforms come after the deadly accident involving a stretch limousine in Schoharie County last year that killed 20 people
- The comprehensive safety reforms for limousines and large passenger vehicles will be included in the 2019 budget
Gov. Cuomo issued limousine safety reform proposals, including an outright ban on remanufactured limousines, known as "stretch" limos, from operating in the state.
The comprehensive safety reforms for limousines and large passenger vehicles will be included in the 2019 budget and come after the accident involving a stretch limousine in Schoharie County last year that killed 20 people.
"This crash was a horrific tragedy that shocked this state to its very core," Governor Cuomo said in a statement. "We are advancing reforms that will give aggressive new powers that will allow authorities to take dangerous vehicles off the roads without delay, hold unscrupulous businesses accountable and increase public safety in every corner of New York."
Aside from an outright ban on remanufactured limousines, other reforms include: requiring drivers to hold a CDL with special passenger endorsement to operate a for-hire vehicle with 8 or more passengers; authorize DOT and DMV to seize suspended license plates; require mandatory reporting by inspection stations to DMV if a vehicle attempts an unauthorized inspection; create new criminal penalties for any DMV-regulated inspection station that illegally issues an inspection sticker; and prohibit U-turns for larger vehicles on all roads within the state.
Additionally, one of the reforms proposes establishing seatbelt requirements for limousines, buses, taxis, liveries and school buses. Currently these types of vehicles are exempted from seatbelt requirements.
Cuomo is also calling to make it a felony to remove an out of service sticker placed by a DOT inspector from a vehicle without having the vehicle re-inspected and cleared by DOT to return to service. While other proposed reforms call for establishing stronger registration suspension and vehicle impoundment powers and making it a felony for any owner/operator to tamper with a Federal Vehicle Safety Standard tag or vehicle inspection sticker.
On Oct. 6, 2018, a limousine carrying four sisters, other relatives and friends to a birthday celebration blew through a stop sign and slammed into a parked SUV outside a store in upstate New York, killing all 18 people in the limo and two pedestrians in the deadliest motor vehicle accident in nearly a decade.
A few days after the accident, Cuomo announced that the state issued a cease-and-desist order to the limousine company, Prestige Limousine, to keep it from operating until state and federal investigators finish looking into the crash.
"The owner of the company had no business putting a failed vehicle on the road," Cuomo said at the time.
Earlier this month, New York state troopers seized dozens of license plates from limousines around the state in the months after the deadly limousine crash upstate.
When asked about limousine enforcement surge, Cuomo suggested more aggressive enforcement should be a permanent feature of limo safety. But he said to do that, new policy -- perhaps new legislation -- could be needed.
