Limo Company Manager Free On $450K Bond Plus GPS Monitor

The operator of Prestige Limousine, Nauman Hussain, is out on bail awaiting trial for the deaths of 18 people in his company's stretch SUV, according to news reports. The crash Oct. 6, the worst in the nation since 2009, also killed two bystanders.

He pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 40 counts handed up by a Schoharie County grand jury two weeks ago: one each of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for each victim.

Hussain went to court with bodyguards, which one of his attorneys said was due to the death threats he has received. Bail was set at $450,000 bond, which he posted. He must also wear a GPS monitor until the trial begins Sept. 9, The Times Union reported. Several family members of the victims attended the hearing.

Read the entire article on timesunion.com

The dead included four sisters and newlywed couples, many from nearby Amsterdam. They were on an excursion to a craft brewery to celebrate a birthday. One of them had texted minutes before the crash about the awful condition of the stretch limo, which was a last-minute substitute for a bus the group had rented.

The 2001 Ford Excursion SUV stretch limousine was traveling on State Route 30 when it blew through a stop sign into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country store and struck a parked Toyota Highlander. The Highlander then plowed into two people standing nearby. They and everyone in the limo died.

The stretch SUV was not federally certified, and had failed inspection a month before; and the driver was not properly licensed, officials said at the time.

The crash, the most deadly transportation incident in the United States since 2009 according to the National Transportation Safety Board, drew national attention and state efforts toward more regulation of stretch SUVs. The NTSB's preliminary report in February shed no new light on the cause of the crash.