‘Like a Bad Dream’: Family Members Describe Shock After Limo Crash

Family members of some of the 20 people killed in a devastating limo crash have been describing their shock at learning their loved ones were involved in the worst U.S. crash for almost a decade.

The limo was headed to a 30th birthday celebration when it blew through the stop sign at an intersection on Route 30 in upstate New York.

All 18 of the occupants died, along with two pedestrians, when the limo slammed into an empty SUV in the parking lot of a nearby store in Schoharie, about 170 miles north of New York City.

Around half the victims in the limo are believed to be related.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said Eric Steenberg, the younger brother of four sisters killed in the crash. “It seems like a really bad dream, I guess,” he told CBS.

They were heading to the birthday celebration for Steenberg’s youngest sister,

Her aunt, Barbara Douglas, told CBS, “Can’t wrap your head around it, you just can’t,”

Since being reconstructed in 2008 because of a fatal accident, three tractor-trailers have run through the same stop sign into a field behind her business, said Jessica Kirby, managing director of the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe.

It was the Apple Barrel’s parking lot where the limo struck the SUV after flying through the intersection.

“More accidents than I can count,” Kirby said in an email, reported CBS, “We have been asking for something to be done for years.”

The Apple Barrel’s Facebook page on Sunday said, “Yes, are open today. And could use your hugs.”

“We are doing our best to cope and grieve. We are a big family at the Apple Barrel, and part of the bigger family of Schoharie. We cope by being together. And that is why we are open.”