NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Nearly six years after a limousine crash killed four women in Suffolk County, families impacted by the tragedy joined a state senator who sponsored laws enacting critical safety measures for limos.
State Sen. James Gaughran presented copies of the laws to the families on Saturday, a day before the sixth anniversary of the July 18, 2015, crash in Cutchogue.
One law requires limousine drivers to use commercial GPS. The other increases penalties for limo drivers who make illegal U-Turns.
“I think what you see change is what you don’t see. Now limousine drivers have to be safer and limousines themselves have to be safer,” Gaughran said.
Nancy DiMonte almost lost her daughter, Joelle, in the crash that killed four of her daughter’s friends.
DiMonte said making New York a safer place is the best way to memorialize the victims of the crash.
“This was driven by those young women, who are in heaven right now. We believe they’ve driven us to this point,” DiMonte said.
DiMonte wants to see the laws become federal.
“Government is only as good as the people you govern,” she said. “And we are those people. So they have to listen to us, and they did. They listened to us. You get progress when you listen to your people.”
“When I first met the families, they were, understandably, some angry and some disillusioned,” Gaughran said. “I think that they all saw that government can be a positive force, and it is because of what they did that the changes were made.”
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