A lawyer for the family of one of the 2018 Schoharie limousine crash victims claims mechanics at the Mavis Discount Tire shop in Saratoga Springs knew years before the crash that the rear brake line on the stretch Ford Excursion limo had a deadly leak but did not warn the vehicle’s owner, Nauman Hussain. Brian Premo made the assertion in a proposed amendment to a lawsuit he previously filed on behalf of victim Michael Ukaj, a Marine combat veteran who lived in Caroga Lake at the time of the Oct. 6, 2018 crash that killed 20 people.
The amendment blames Mavis’ mechanics for the installation of a vice grip on a brake line that effectively disabled one of the brakes on the nearly 7-ton vehicle. State Police blamed the crash on catastrophic brake failure; it will be up to a judge to decide whether to accept the amended complaint.
Hussain, age 35, was convicted on 20 counts of manslaughter in connection with the limo crash. He is currently serving a sentence of up to 15 years at the Attica Correctional Facility, after a May 2023 conviction on 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter for his role in the crash.
Ukaj’s family, which controls his estate, is just one of two that have not reached monetary settlements with Mavis. The other is the family of Scott Lisinicchia, the limo’s chauffeur.
Virgil Park, a former manager of the Mavis shop in Saratoga Springs, testified that Hussain refused to pay for brake repairs that Park said had been recommended to him in the months leading up to the crash. But Premo says security camera footage and other evidence that was not shown at trial show Park mocking Hussain and repeatedly misleading him about the reasons for the Excursion’s brake issues and what work needed to be done to make the limo safe.
The suit also claims Mavis’ mechanics lied in statements given to police in the wake of the crash and later when they testified at Hussain’s criminal trial. According to the amended complaint, a vice grip was placed on the hose of the left rear brake after Hussain brought the limo in complaining of a grinding sound. The vice grip eliminated the sound, but also essentially kept the rear left brake from functioning, the lawsuit alleges.
“Sooo our limo is broken,” one of the limo passengers wrote in a text to an unidentified recipient, according to the lawsuit. “The brakes are [not working]. It’s like overheating and now he can’t get it to stop. He is just coasting trying to get it to stop.” The text, sent one minute before the crash happened, had not been disclosed before, in either the criminal proceedings or in any of the civil lawsuits.
Source: Times Union
