To the Editor:

I am writing my thoughts on what the punishment of the owners of the Prestige Limo Company should be, as well as ideas that can be used to prevent another tragedy.

To begin with, I believe that the owners of Prestige Limousine company should go to jail for 20 cases of involuntary manslaughter. I say this because they were not directly involved in the death of the 20  people in the crash but the people died due to their recklessness and negligence to get the car cleared by the New York State government. In what I’ve read about the incident, 17 close friends were celebrating and decided to get a limo from this company. When riding in the limo, the driver (who was not cleared to drive this limo) was speeding toward an intersection with the inability to stop. Swerving out of control they then entered the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe parking ot uncontrollable, killing two bystanders.

This story touches me due to the innocent people involved in this accident from the bystanders to the 17 young people in the limo.

One way to avoid this from ever happening is having company vehicles more frequently checked by the services who control them. Vehicles that are owned by companies for large groups of people should be of high quality and should be revoked or taken away by the government when they are without proper registration or clearance.

Another way to avoid this from ever happening again is discontinuing old limousines. New limousines should include very high-tech features that would protect the driver and the passengers and a situation where they are going downhill considerably fast.

In conclusion, the owners of the limousine company are to blame for the deaths of these innocent young people and should be punished. Let this also be a wakeup call to the services who clear these cares for the road.

Paris Hart

Guilderland