Families give emotional testimony at hearing in wake of deadly limo crashes

Raw grief from two horrific New York limo crashes was on display in Albany on Thursday, when surviving family members described their heartbreak to lawmakers in hopes of spurring much-needed safety improvements.

Only three out of the state’s 63 senators attended the limo and bus safety hearing conducted by the Senate Transportation Committee.

“There isn’t a second every day that my daughter is not in my head,” mom Felicia Baruch says of losing her 24-year-old daughter, Lauren, in the 2015 Cutchogue crash that left four women dead.

Lauren and her friends had been enjoying a summer wine tour when limo driver Carlos Pino, 59, made an illegal U-turn on Route 48.

The limo, built from converted passenger cars, lacked side-impact airbags and other safety features, a special grand jury found; its side crumpled when it was T-boned by a pickup truck, crushing those inside.

“There isn’t an hour that I don’t shed a tear. It doesn’t change and it never will,” the bereft mom testified.

She said she’s still here for the sake of her son and husband, but otherwise “would take any pill to kill myself” because of the pain.

In other poignant testimony, another mom, Susan Arundel, showed lawmakers a photograph of all eight young women who’d been riding in the limo; her own daughter was among the four who lived.

Testimony was also expected to touch on the 20 who died in the Oct. 6, 2018 limo crash in Schoharie.

In that crash, the victims were riding in a 2001 Ford Excursion that had dodged rigorous state Department of Transportation inspections for years.

That limo blew through a stop sign and crashed into a country store, killing the driver, 17 passengers and two bystanders.

Janet Steenburg, who lost three sons in the crash, got too choked up the read her entire testimony, so relative Jill Perez finished the reading.

Steenberg’s testimony noted the stretch limo failed inspection three times, which directly resulted in the 20 deaths.

“My son rented that limo so his family and friends would be safe, he followed the laws that New York state has set in place. And the laws failed to protect them all,” the testimony read.

“You can all sit here and listen to all the talk and speeches for four hours then go to your office and step outside this whole thing, we can’t, we live it every day changing these laws won’t bring our children back, it fixes nothing for anyone of us.

“But it will help prevent anyone else feeling what we each feel every second of every day. October 6, 2018 was our nightmare without these laws being adjusted, the next nightmare may be yours.”

“New York dropped the ball on this,” Steenburg told The Post after.

Also at the hearing, David Brown, the president of Premiere Transportation, which operates a 50-vehicle fleet, argued that the limo industry is already “very, very regulated.”

“These were very, very tragic accidents that in no way do I need to take lightly,” he said.

He argued that the DMV, Department of Transportation and law enforcement all must have better communication to target the small minority of irresponsible companies.

The new state budget enacted higher penalties for limo companies when vehicles fail inspections, gives the Department of Motor Vehicles power to confiscate license plates of unsafe limos.

It also banned stretch limos from making U-turns and boosted insurance costs to $1.5 million for commercial vehicles with the capacity for 8 or more passengers.

But families say the new laws don’t go far enough.

They want legislation requiring seat belts in limos, special inspection shops for remanufactured limos and stricter license requirements.

Others called for updates like air bags and escape hatches, and drug testing of drivers.

Additional reporting by Laura Italiano