US limo company operator charged after 20 people killed in crash

Police say they have charged a limo service operator with criminally negligent homicide after a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York.

State police say Prestige Limousine operator Nauman Hussain was arrested Wednesday in a traffic stop on a highway near Albany.

Prestige Limousine has come under intense scrutiny since Saturday's crash in Schoharie.

Hussain's lawyer, Lee Kindlon, says that his client isn't guilty and that police "jumped the gun in charging him."

Kindlon says the 28-year-old Hussain handled marketing and phone calls while his father ran Prestige Limousine.

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Two pedestrians and 18 people in a Prestige super-stretch limo were killed. It was taking a group to a birthday bash.

The driver ran a stop sign and crashed into a parked SUV by the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe.

State officials have said the limo failed an inspection and was declared "unserviceable" Sept. 4. The company's lawyer has said safety problems were corrected, though the state says that's not so.

The wife of a limousine driver involved in the crash says her late husband expressed concerns about the company's vehicles.

Kim Lisinicchia told her husband, Scott, stated several times that he needed a different vehicle but then trusted the company's assurances that its "cars were all right."

Prestige Limousine has been criticized for maintaining vehicles rife with violations and for employing a driver lacking a commercial license.

Lisinicchia says her husband was "in excellent health" and drove a tractor-trailer for 20 years.