Roads where limo crash killed 20 are a menace, store says

The site of a devastating accident that killed two pedestrians and 18 occupants of a limousine headed to a birthday party, including four sisters, is a known danger spot that has long worried locals, according to a manager of the store that sits at the intersection where the accident happened.

The intersection had been redone in 2008 because of a fatal accident there, said Jessica Kirby, managing director of the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe, which is an institution in Schoharie and among the legions of leaf-peepers who take to the roads of upstate New York each autumn.

Since the reconstruction, three tractor-trailers have run through the same stop sign authorities said the limo blew and into a field behind her business, she said. Officials worked with the state to outlaw heavy trucks, she said, but there are still accidents.

And now this.

"More accidents than I can count," she said in an email. "We have been asking for something to be done for years." Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement Sunday saying he has "directed state agencies to provide every resource necessary to aid in this investigation and determine what led to this tragedy."
"They did the responsible thing getting a limo so they wouldn't have to drive anywhere," their aunt, Barbara Douglas, said Sunday. She did not want to name them publicly but added: "They were wonderful girls. They'd do anything for you and they were very close to each other and they loved their family."
"She was a beautiful, sweet soul; he was, too, they were very sweet," Abeling said. "They were two very young, beautiful people" who "had everything going for them."