A Fatal Crash Shows a Safety Problem With Stretch Limousines
To
travel safely as they toured wineries on the North Fork of Long Island
last weekend, eight young women booked a stretch limousine for the
afternoon. They could enjoy the wine and spirits without having to worry
about driving.
As
it turned out, they got into a vehicle that, like many stretch
limousines, had been stripped of the very safety features intended to
help people in regular cars survive broadside collisions.
Late in the afternoon, when the limousine started to make a U-turn, it was hit broadside by a pickup truck on Route 48 in Suffolk County. Four of the women died.
In
looking at photographs of the wreckage, Raul Arbelaez, an engineer with
the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety who has studied side-impact
crashes, said on Thursday that the truck struck the limousine at a spot
that had virtually none of the conventional protections.
“This
couldn’t have been centered on a worse place,” said Mr. Arbelaez, a
vice president at the institute’s Vehicle Research Center. “It hit the
most vulnerable spot.”
To
make a stretch limousine, an ordinary car is cut in half and plates are
used to extend the floor and the roof. Pillars in the car, running from
the ceiling to the floor, are normally part of a structural cage around
the passenger compartment in conventional cars. But in a stretch
limousine, the passenger areas are generally not protected by the
pillars.
“Where this crash was centered, you have none of that structure,” Mr. Arbelaez said.
Because
seats are reconfigured in stretch limousines, the ordinary principles
of protection for side-impact crashes do not apply: For a person sitting
with her back to the door on one side, the collision comes from the
rear; for a person facing her, it is a head-on collision. Officials
could not say if the side seats were equipped with safety belts.
In
regular passenger cars, federal standards require curtain airbags that
are packed into a roof rail and activated during a collision from the
side to protect the heads of the driver and passengers.
“What
you have in a stretch limousine is none of that,” Mr. Arbelaez said.
“Even if you wanted to put them in, I know of no airbag suppliers that
make an airbag big enough.”
A
strict regulatory regimen has reduced highway deaths drastically over
the last four decades — seatbelts, airbags and proof that vehicles can
continue to protect passengers in at least some collisions. Before a car
becomes a stretch limousine, the manufacturer must prove that it can
meet federal safety standards. After it has been bought, the new owner
can modify it into a stretch limo without having to show that it is
crashworthy.
The
young women had been riding in a Lincoln Town Car that had been
converted into a stretch limousine. The vehicle was hired from Ultimate
Class Limousine Worldwide, which has a base in Hicksville, on Long
Island. A public relations person for the limousine company did not
reply to questions about its safety features.
The
driver of the truck, Steven Romeo, has been charged with driving while
intoxicated, but authorities chose not to give him a breathalyzer test
at the scene, and officials in Suffolk County say they have not yet
received lab tests on his blood when this article was written. Today, the DA revealed that the blood alcohol level was 0.068, less than the 0.080 legal limit.
The charge was based on a police
officer’s observations that he was unsteady after the crash, had an odor
of alcohol, and acknowledged having had beer, according to Bob
Clifford, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney, Thomas Spota.
The limousine driver passed a breathalyzer test, Mr. Clifford said. The
authorities also seized the cellphones of both the limousine driver and
Mr. Romeo.
On
Thursday, Suffolk prosecutors agreed with Mr. Romeo’s lawyer that his
bail should be reduced to $50,000 from $500,000. Mr. Spota has scheduled
a press briefing for Friday.
Drunken
driving is an undeniable hazard, but it is not clear yet if it was a
factor in the devastation on Saturday. Officials would not say if they
expect the intoxication charges against Mr. Romeo to stand. A family
friend described him as being “inconsolable.” He remains hospitalized.
Another
factor at the crash site, a spot where limousines often make U-turns,
is the absence of a red light. Traffic tickets are issued every week to
limousine drivers for failing to yield the right of way to oncoming
traffic, the police in Southold said.