'My heart has stopped': Family devastated after newlyweds identified among 20 killed in limo crash
A newlywed couple were among the 20 victims killed in a horrific New York limousine crash – the deadliest US transportation incident in almost a decade.
Erin and Shane McGowan, 30 and 34, were on their way to a friend’s birthday party when the limousine ran a stop sign at the end of a highway and smashed into an unoccupied SUV in a café car park in Schoharie, about 270 kilometres north of New York City on Sunday.
All 18 people in the limousine and two pedestrians were killed.
The couple’s daughter had also been invited to the birthday but couldn’t make it.
Ms McGowan’s heartbroken father, Anthony Vertucci, said their lives had been turned upside down by the tragedy.
“My heart has stopped,” he wrote in an emotional Facebook post.
“Unspeakable tragedy that I can’t comprehend and will never come to terms with.”
Her aunty Valerie Abelin echoed Mr Vertucci’s words, holding back tears as she described the young mum as a “beautiful, sweet soul”.
The couple were married at a “beautiful wedding” in June at a venue in upstate New York, Ms Abeling said. “They had everything going for them.”
The store manager, Jessica Kirby, told The New York Times that the limo was coming down a hill at nearly 100km/h.
At the news conference, State Police First Deputy Superintendent Christopher Fiore didn’t comment on speed, or whether the occupants of the vehicle had been wearing seat belts.
