After Horrific Tragedy, Cuomo Announces Limo Safety Reforms

NORTH FORK, NY — After the most horrific of tragedies, there is hope for change: This week, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced comprehensive safety reforms for limousines and large passenger vehicles that will be included in the 2019 executive budget.

The reforms come in the wake of a devastating crash involving a modified stretched limousine in Schoharie County killed 20 people in 2018, Cuomo said.

"This crash was a horrific tragedy that shocked this state to its very core," Cuomo said. "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."

On the North Fork, the changes come after a tragic Cutchogue limo crash in 2015 left four young women dead and four badly injured.

Since that agonizing day, the parents of the young women killed have been advocating tirelessly for reform. On Wednesday, Paul Shulman, whose daughter Brittney Shulman, 23, was one of four young women, including Stephanie Belli, 23, Amy Grabina, 23, and Lauren Baruch, 24, killed, expressed relief that change was coming.

"It took a long time, and a tough fight, but all eight families are finally going to see the changes to limousine laws and for drivers that we have been advocating for — so no one else has to walk in our shoes," he said.

Cuomo proposes a number of reforms to both protect passengers and hold those accountable who "seek to defy the law: including a ban on the registration of remanufactured limousines, prohibiting their operation in New York State; a requirement that drivers hold a commercial driver's license with a special passenger endorsement to operate a for hire vehicle with eight or more passengers" — and the fact that it would now be a felony to remove an out of service sticker placed by a Department of Transportation inspector from a vehicle without having the vehicle re-inspected and cleared by DOT to return to service, he said.

In addition, Cuomo said he seeks to increase the civil penalty to a maximum fine of $25,000 per violation for any person found operating with suspended DOT operating authority or operating a vehicle without such authority, with those individuals subject to felony prosecution.

The governor also plans to establish stronger registration suspension and vehicle impoundment powers, including an explicit process for immediate suspension of operating authority by the DOT Commissioner in circumstances that endanger the health, safety, and welfare of the public. He would also authorize the DOT and Department of Motor Vehicles to seize suspended license plates; make it a felony for any owner/operator to tamper with a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard tag or vehicle inspection sticker; ensure vehicle impoundment occurs for purposes of felony violations and subject multiple violators to the potential for civil forfeiture of vehicle; and require mandatory reporting by inspection stations to the DMV if a vehicle attempts an unauthorized inspection.

Finally, Cuomo seeks to create new criminal penalties for any DMV-regulated inspection station that illegally issues an inspection sticker; prohibit U-turns for larger vehicles on all roads within the state; eliminate the exception to seatbelt requirements for limousines, buses, taxis, liveries, and school buses; and establish a DOT inspection fee of $120 per inspection for vehicles subject to such inspection.

After the most recent crash in Oct., 2018, North Fork residents remembered that dark day in July, 2015. One woman wrote on social media, reflecting what so many have been thinking: "It happened again."

The parents of the young women killed in 2015, who spent years imploring officials for limousine regulations, including the prohibition of U-turns for limos, added their voices to that of Cuomo, who said in 2018 that the limo should in Schoharie shuld never have been on the road at all, because it had failed a New York State Department of Transportation inspection just a month prior to the crash.

The 2018 horror unfolded when a 2001 Ford Excursion SUV stretch limousine was traveling in a southwestern direction on State Route 30 and ran a stop sign at the intersection with State Route 30A. The modified SUV plowed across the intersection into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country store and struck a parked Toyota Highlander; the Highlander then struck and killed two people standing nearby, police said.

New York State police said it was not yet clear whether the brakes failed or whether the driver was speeding.

"To see something this tragic brings back bad memories of that day and to see what we have been advocating for, to save lives, totally disregarded — to allow this to happen just tears me up inside, when both accidents could have been avoided if the changes we are looking to make, were law," Shulman told Patch in 2018.

In 2017, Shulman and the other parents also led the "Lauren, Amy, Brittney, Stephanie," or LABS, petition. LABS, he said, is a petition to "bring awareness and justice to the horrific event that occurred."

And in the fall of 2018, after the crash that took 20 lives, Shulman said all the cries for change had tragically gone unheard: "The construction of limos for safety standards need to be adhered to, such as steel reinforced bras on the doors. There was one on my daughter's limo, but it was placed lower than where it was hit — no airbags or seat belts." Shulman said protocol needed to be followed to ensure limo companies abide by safety standards and there should be federal mandates; limo drivers, he said, needed to have CDL licenses, not a Class E with a P endorsement.

"This is what we have been advocating for," Shulman said.

The 2015 crash took place at the intersection of County Road 48 and Depot Lane in Cutchogue, "when the driver of a stretch limousine made a U-turn on a double lane road where no signal was indicated for oncoming traffic. As the driver made the U-turn, an oncoming driver with limited time to react, collided with the limousine, which ended in complete disarray," the petition stated. "A day in which eight women decided to be safe and take what was supposed to be safe and reliable transportation, turned into the complete opposite. . . Eight women went to the wineries for a fun, exciting day, and only four came home . . . only to begin what will be the toughest journey of their lives."

Urging changes

The years since that dark day have been filled with pain and grief for the heartbroken families left behind.

"It is still a struggle to come to a decision on who is held responsible for this accident," the petition said. "Every single day, the families, friends, loved ones, and unrelated individuals are reminded of the accident and the details involving the loss of four beautiful women. This petition is to advocate not only for Lauren, Amy, Brittney, and Stephanie, but for anyone who considers limousines as a reliable transportation option."

The parents, with an eye toward preventing future tragedies, listed a number of points they believe can save lives. To view that petition, click here.

And, after the Cutchogue crash, the parents of the eight young women have been unified in their cry for a green turning arrow at the Depot Lane traffic signal, despite the fact that Suffolk County has not yet installed one — and have said there is no present plans to do so.

Community cloaked in mourning

Faded photographs and flowers have, for years, marked the spot where the four young women died after their limo was T-boned in the horrific crash more than three years ago.

The North Fork community has long been cloaked in mourning since the crash, with many residents echoing similar thoughts about how the memories of the worst tragedy they've ever witnessed, continue to haunt.

The limousine, driven by Pino and owned by Ultimate Class Limousine, Inc., was transporting the young women on July 18, 2015, former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said; at approximately 5:11 p.m, the limo, while making a U-turn at the intersection of Route 48 and Depot Lane in Cutchogue, was broadsided by a pickup truck driven by Steven Romeo.

Spota said the DA's office planned to appeal the decision of a judge to throw out the indictment and dismiss charges against Pino. Romeo pleaded guilty to driving while impaired in April, 2017.

A day that haunts

Each of the four families who lost their daughters has chosen to honor their daughter by giving yearly scholarships to worthy students.

"You see these eight beautiful babies? The way I'm leaving them with you, I want them back." Those were the heartbreaking words Felicia Baruch uttered to limo driver Carlos Pino before the limo crash in July, 2015 in Cutchogue that took the life of her daughter Lauren and three other young women, and left four others gravely injured. The words were revealed as part of a a 156-page New York Supreme Court Suffolk County Special Grand Jury Report released in Dec. 2016, with recommendations discussed at a press conference.

Findings indicated that the grand jury wanted to see U-turns by modified or stretch limos banned in Suffolk County and New York State, enhanced driver certification requirements, and a new traffic light at County Road 48 with a green turning arrow with a red phase for both eastbound and westbound traffic.

The "lack of regulations" regarding stretch limos was cited, as was the "inadequate traffic light" at County Road 48 and Depot Lane, Spota said.

"There's nothing but a fine line between a stretch limousine and a hearse."

At the time, Spota prophetically said something needed to be done so that an similar accident would never happen again. "There's nothing but a fine line between a stretch limousine and a hearse," he said.

Patch photo by Lisa Finn.