20 Dead In N.Y. Limo Crash. Is a Limo a Car or a Truck?

[NeverFollow]

20 Dead In N.Y. Limo Crash; Called Nation's 'Most Deadly Accident' In 9 Years

"The intersection is a very dangerous intersection," Schoharie Town Supervisor Alan Tavenner told WAMC.
There has been "at least two instances where tractor trailers lost their brakes and went through the intersection,"
leading the New York State Department of Transportation to ban them from State Route 30, he said.

New York State Police, who also are investigating the crash, have not said how fast
the limousine was traveling nor whether the vehicle might have experienced a brake failure.

Should a COIF (Certificate of Initial Fitness) Limo of 24 passengers be authorized to use a banned truck road?

Make & Model: 2001 Ford Excursion limousine
Body Style: SUV Stretch Limo
Customer Capacity: 24

NYC - DOT - Trucks and Commercial Vehicles

Pursuant to Section 4-13 of the New York City Traffic Rules,
a truck is defined as any vehicle or combination of vehicles designed
for the transportation of property that has the following characteristics:

• two axles and six tires, or
• three or more axles

Wikipedia - Limousine
A limousine is a luxury vehicle driven by a chauffeur
with a partition between the driver's compartment and the passenger compartment.
A car with a partition and a lengthened wheelbase is called a "stretch limousine".

 

[arg]

More info here:

Deadly crash US limo 'failed inspection'

The vehicle had allegedly failed inspection, and the driver was allegedly not licensed to carry passengers...

 

[Jay911]

I'm not from the United States, but is the law defined between "truck" and "car", or is it "commercial vehicle" and, well, "not commercial vehicle"?

I appreciate that a minivan or a sedan could be a commercial vehicle if you use it for work, but I definitely would consider a stretched Excursion to be a commercial vehicle.

More to the original point, the Excursion is an F250 chassis IIRC, so it is a truck regardless of the argument...

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

It doesn't have 6 tires or more than 2 axles.

Not that it really matters as it's obvious they broke a lot of other laws.

 

[arg]

If it was going to be categorised as something other than a car, I'd have thought it was more like a bus.

In the UK licensing scheme for example, up to 8 passenger seats can be a car, up to 16 passenger seats is a "minibus", and more than 16 passenger seats is a "bus". So if this was in the UK, that would be a bus. US law is obviously different, but there must be a similar definition.

 

[jaguar36]

The fundamental issue here is that seatbelts aren't required or commonly used in a limo. Sure, it may have broken other laws, but a crash just like this could easily occur again with a commercially licensed driver, a limo that had passed inspection and at a safer intersection.

 

[SSedan]

Classification of the vehicle and road are not critical points when you have a junker driven by an untrained person, and clearly junk is company policy.

If the driver were properly licensed the no truck warnings may well have triggered extra caution even if classified as a car.

I haven't seen if this driver was a regular driver despite being not licensed for such or maybe it was first time driving an oversized vehicle.

There are a lot of issues here and I think classification of the vehicle is about the last thing to worry about.

 

[Jay911]

The fundamental issue here is that seatbelts aren't required or commonly used in a limo. Sure, it may have broken other laws, but a crash just like this could easily occur again with a commercially licensed driver, a limo that had passed inspection and at a safer intersection.

We had one in Canada in the end of last winter when a super-B semi (two trailers) went through a stop sign on a rural highway and hit a minor league hockey team bus broadside. Over half the occupants of the bus died (16 fatalities IIRC) and there are grievous injuries for many of the survivors. Seat belt use (lack thereof) was criticized being that it was a motor coach bus that was involved, with no belts to be had. There's been nothing raised about the mechanical fitness of either vehicle, but an obscured view of the intersection and the experience level of the semi driver were big factors.

 

[Icer]

How is it possible everyone is dead?

unpossible