THE limousine company involved in a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York is owned by a noted FBI informant, records indicate.

Federal transportation records say Prestige Limousine was owned by Shahed Hussain and was based at a motel in Gansevoort.

Court records show that the Shahed Hussain who owns that motel gained fame in the years after the September 11 attacks for infiltrating Muslim groups for the FBI.

He posed as a terrorist sympathiser in at least three investigations.

In one case, he helped convict men accused of plotting to bomb New York synagogues.

Albany-area lawyer Dana Salazar, who represented Hussain in a civil case, says she knew of his background as an informant but didn’t have knowledge of his limo business.

Calls to the limo company went unanswered.

In other developments, the National Transportation Safety Board says there were no apparent skid marks before the limousine barrelled through an intersection and crashed into a parked car.

But chairman Robert Sumwalt cautioned during a news conference on Monday that the lack of skid marks could be due to misty weather or anti-lock brakes.

Sumwalt says that the stretch limousine had at least some seat belts, but that it was unclear whether any of the passengers were wearing them.

Investigators plan to examine everything from the mangled limo’s data recorders and mechanical systems to the road, which has a history as a danger spot.

Meanwhile, Prestige says it has taken its cars off the road while probing what caused the wreck.

The New York Times says the company issued a statement on Monday saying it’s conducting “a detailed internal investigation.”

The Gansevoort, New York-based company says it also has met with state and federal authorities and plans to do so again.

Prestige expressed condolences to relatives of Saturday’s crash in Schoharie.

Four sisters, two brothers and at least three young couples were among the dead.

The limo driver also died along with two pedestrians.

The firm says it pulled its cars from the road voluntarily.

State police say they seized four Prestige cars, including the one that crashed.

CRASH VICTIM’S CHILLING FINAL TEXT
One of the 20 victims involved in the crash told her cousin moments before the collision that the stretch limousine was in terrible condition, The Washington Post reported.

Erin McGowan, 34, who died along with her newlywed husband Shane, 30, had sent a text message to her cousin questioning the car’s condition roughly 20 minutes before the fatal crash, her aunt said.

Erin’s aunt, Valerie Abeling, told The Washington Post that her daughter received a text message saying that the limo appeared to be in a “terrible condition”.

“It’s tragic. Horrible. I can’t even begin to even explain …” Ms Abeling said in an interview. “Our lives have been changed forever.”

The McGowans were just starting a life together after getting married in June and were saving to buy a house.

Tragically, Erin’s text proved correct as reports emerged on Monday that the limo had recently failed a safety inspection and shouldn’t have been on the road, and the driver wasn’t properly licensed, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The state ordered the owner, Prestige Limousine, shut down while an investigation continues into what caused Saturday’s shocking accident in Schoharie, New York.

“In my opinion, the owner of this company had no business putting a failed vehicle on the road,” the governor said while attending a Columbus Day Parade in New York City.

“Prestige has a lot of questions to answer.”

Various US reports named the driver as 53-year-old Scott Lisinicchia, but police have yet to officially confirm this.

Amy Steenburg, whose birthday was cause for the celebration, and her three sisters have been identified as those among the dead. Their names were Abigail Jackson, Mary Dyson, Allison King and Amy. Their husbands also all died in the crash.

The women’s aunt, Barbara Douglas, told the New York Post they were “beautiful girls”.

“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.”

“They did the responsible thing getting a limo so they wouldn’t have to drive anywhere,” Mrs Douglas added.

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.”

Valerie Abeling, the aunt of victim Erin Vertucci, said her 34-year-old niece and her niece’s new husband, were victims.

“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.”

Mr Cuomo said he had “directed state agencies to provide every resource necessary to aid in this investigation and determine what led to this tragedy.”

DEADLIEST US TRANSPORT ACCIDENT SINCE 2009
Autopsies were being performed on the dead but authorities didn’t say whether the limo occupants were wearing seat belts, nor did they give any indication as to the speed of the car.

The 2001 Ford Excursion limousine was travelling about 270km north of New York City when it failed to stop at a stop sign at an intersection, police said.

It went across the road and hit an unoccupied car parked at the Apple Barrel Country Store and two pedestrians.

The intersection had been redone in 2008 because of a fatal accident there, said Jessica Kirby, who is managing director of the Apple Barrel Country Store.

Since the reconstruction, three semi-trailers had reportedly run through the same stop sign that the limo went through, she said.

Officials worked with the state to stop heavy trucks using the intersection, she said, but accidents had continued to happen.

The crash appeared to be the deadliest land-vehicle accident in the US since a bus ferrying nursing home patients away from Hurricane Rita caught fire in Texas 2005, killing 23.

And it is the deadliest transportation accident overall since February 2009, when a plane crash near Buffalo, New York, killed 50 people, said Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating.

The Apple Barrel Country Store’s Facebook page reflected the concern around the accident in the tight-knit community.

“Yes, are open today. And could use your hugs,” it read.

“We are doing our best to cope and grieve. We are a big family at the Apple Barrel, and part of the bigger family of Schoharie. We cope by being together. And that is why we are open.”

There were just 12 crashes involving large limos in the five years for which the agency has released statistics, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Twelve people were killed in limo crashes in that span, 2012 through 2016.

Over the same period, 171,508 people were killed in 157,451 crashes involving all types of vehicles.

As authorities worked to determine what caused the crash, safety issues on vehicles like the one involved in the accident have arisen before, notably after a wreck on Long Island in July 2015 in which four women were killed.

They were in a sedan that had been cut apart and rebuilt in a stretch configuration to accommodate more passengers.

The limousine was trying to make a U-turn and was struck by a truck.

A grand jury found that vehicles converted into stretch limousines often don’t have safety measures including side-impact airbags, reinforced rollover protection bars and accessible emergency exits.

That grand jury called on Mr Cuomo to assemble a task force on limousine safety.

Limousines built in factories are already required to meet stringent safety regulations, but when cars are converted into limos, safety features are sometimes removed, leading to gaps in safety protocols, the grand jury wrote.