To the Editor:

My name is Willem Feeney. I am a 10th-grader at Guilderland High School. I wanted to write to you about what I think should happen to the owner of Prestige Limousine, which is responsible for the recent crash in Schoharie killing 20 people.

I think that the owner of the company should be accountable and go to jail for what happened. The owner of the company should have known that it was important to check over the condition of the vehicle before allowing people to get into it.

The vehicle used to drive those who died was not in any condition to be driving. There were many things wrong with the vehicle, such as its engine and brakes didn’t work well. The car they used was a luxury car converted into a limo, which lack safety components like airbags, protection bars, and accessible emergency exits.

A tragedy like this one can be avoided in the future by making companies check over the vehicle to be sure that everything about it is safe. The company should check for things like if the engine is in good shape, if the brakes on the car are working, and if the limo has good and working airbags. Also, they should have to check for these things each time the car is going to be used.

The company has allowed 20 people to die suddenly, including four sisters and four other relatives and this needs to be put to a stop. If companies continue to go on driving people in unsafe vehicles the same thing that happened with the 20 people who have died will happen again and again. The company along with its owner should be punished for allowing something this bad to happen to so many people.

Willem Feeney

Guilderland