Ns News Online Desk: Four sisters and their husbands were among the 20 people killed in an upstate limo crash that took place while the women were celebrating the youngest sister’s 30th birthday, their aunt said Sunday.
“One just got married and that’s what this was: her new husband was giving her a surprise birthday party,” Barbara Douglas said.
Douglas revealed her family’s tragedy while visiting the scene of the deadly wreck in Schoharie, New York.
“They were beautiful girls, full of life. They had their whole lives ahead of them,” she said.
“One of them had two children. One of them had one child.”
Davis identified the sisters as Abigail Jackson, Mary Dyson, Allison King and Amy Steenburg. She said they ranged in age from 35 to 30, respectively, noting: “It was just my youngest niece’s birthday.”
“My brother told me that when [the police] called him they didn’t know if the brakes went out or what, but they were all dead,” she said, referring to the sisters’ dad. “I have five nieces, and now four of them are dead.”
Douglas’ daughter left a large pot of yellow mums by the edge of the ditch where the stretch limo crashed on Saturday afternoon. According to the state police, the customized 2001 Ford Excursion failed to stop at the intersection of Route 30 and Route 30A — which is marked with a stop sign — and plowed into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe.
The limo smashed into a parked 2015 Toyota Highlander that struck and killed two bystanders, while the limo continued hurtling on across a lawn and into a small stand of trees on the far side of the ditch. All 18 people in the limo, including the driver, were killed.
