Pakistani-American, son of owner of limo that crashed killing 20 arrested on homicide charges

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Pakistani-American Nauman Hussain, the son of Prestige Limo owner Shahed Hussain, was arrested on negligent homicide charges for letting a limousine that failed an inspection last month, out on the road.

This is the same limousine that killed 20 people on Saturday, October 6, when it crashed at the intersection of routes 30 and 30A in New York.

According to a Times Union report, Hussain, 28, was also aware that the driver of the limousine, Scott T. Lisinicchia, was not properly licensed for that assignment.

Lisinicchia was driving an SUV-style stretch limousine with 17 passengers, who were going to a birthday party at Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown, when he rolled through the stop sign at the intersection, hit a parked car and slammed into an embankment, killing everyone aboard, including himself, and two bystanders.

He had also received a notice of violation for driving without a proper license to operate the same limo, just weeks before the crash, at which time the state trooper who pulled him over even wrote in his notice, for the 2001 Ford Excursion to be taken out of service immediately, something that Hussain ignored, according to a Times Union report.

State Police Superintendent George Beach was quoted in the Times Union report on Wednesday that “the sole responsibility for that motor vehicle being on the road that Saturday belongs to Nauman Hussain.”

Hussain was taken into custody after state troopers stopped his vehicle on Interstate 787 and was charged with criminally negligent homicide, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of anywhere from 15 months to four years in state prison.

While Hussain, who has operated the limo company, met with State Police investigators for several hours on Monday, his father is out of the country but will return if asked by law enforcement, the Time Union reported.

The crash is the nation’s deadliest transportation crash since the Buffalo plane crash in 2009, which killed 49 passengers and one person on the ground, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.