SCHOHARIE, N.Y. — From the curbside of Route 30, at the base of a long, sweeping hill, a path of mud, rocks and scattered glass tells the story of a tragic limo crash where 20 people lost their lives on Saturday.

Its path leads through the grass beside Apple Barrel Country Store and Café, through the tall brush that now lies flat and plummeting into a shallow ditch where a large tree trunk is split in half.

Dark clouds hovered over the scene Sunday afternoon, quiet save for the gentle stream running through the ditch. A swarm of news teams and television cameras were rolling, all pointed toward this tight corner where so many lives were lost.

Since the crash, friends of the victims, neighbors who heard the sirens and members of the community have stopped by to pay their respects. A few have left bouquets of flowers wrapped in colored cellophane at the edge of the ditch, others make the sign of the cross and say a prayer.

On the largest potted plant, an arrangement of small white flowers in the center is written, “May God Bless Them All.”

State Police spokesman Christopher Fiore said the limousine failed to stop at the intersection in the town of Schoharie and slammed into a parked, unoccupied SUV. Eighteen people in the limousine, including the driver, and two pedestrians were killed in the crash, he said.

"Everyone inside the limousine was killed," Fiore said.

The National Transportation Safety Board was on the scene. Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said it was the biggest U.S. transportation accident since 2009.

"Twenty fatalities is just horrific," he said.

The limo was carrying four sisters, other relatives and friends to a birthday celebration, The Associated Press reported Sunday night.

“They were wonderful girls,” said their aunt, Barbara Douglas, speaking with reporters Sunday. “They’d do anything for you and they were very close to each other and they loved their family.”

The 2001 Ford Excursion was traveling southwest on Route 30 in Schoharie around 2 p.m. when it failed to stop at a T-junction with state Route 30A and crashed into an SUV parked at the Apple Barrel, Fiore said.

He didn’t comment on speed or whether the occupants of the vehicle had been wearing seat belts.

Limousines built in factories are already required to meet stringent safety regulations, but when cars are converted into limos, safety features are sometimes removed, leading to gaps in safety protocols, the grand jury wrote.

On Sunday, New York’s senior U.S. Sen., Chuck Schumer, noted he asked NTSB to toughen standards after the 2015 crash. “I commend the NTSB’s immediate aid on scene and am very hopeful that we will have concrete answers soon,” Schumer said.

Limousine accidents remain rare, according to NHTSA data. They accounted for only one death crash out of 34,439 fatal accidents in 2016, the last year for which data is available.

The crash “sounded like an explosion,” said Linda Riley of nearby Schenectady, who was on a shopping trip with her sisters. When she got out of her vehicle, Riley said, she saw a body on the ground and people started screaming.

Authorities didn’t release names of victims or other specifics, but state police set up a hotline for family members.

Douglas said three of the sisters were with their husbands, and she identified them as Amy and Axel Steenburg, Abigail and Adam Jackson, Mary and Rob Dyson and Allison King.

“They did the responsible thing getting a limo so they wouldn’t have to drive anywhere,” she said, adding the couples had several children between them who they left at home.

Speaking through tears, Valerie Abeling said her niece Erin Vertucci was among the victims, with her newlywed husband, Shane McGowan. Abeling said they were headed to a friend's birthday party when the crash occurred. She said her own daughter had been invited along but couldn’t go.

“She was a beautiful, sweet soul; he was, too,” Abeling said of the two victims, adding they were married in June. “They had everything going for them.”

Schoharie is a town of 3,300 people about 160 miles north of New York City.

The crash took place in an area popular with tourists during the fall foliage season. The Apple Barrel owners posted condolences on Facebook and said the store was open Sunday to share "hugs" with neighbors.

"This is a wonderful, small-knit community of people who care about each other," Liz Gallup, who works at the store and has lived nearby for almost 60 years, told USA TODAY. "People are coming in, they are hugging, they are sharing."

The store manager, Jessica Kirby, told The New York Times the limo was coming down a hill at “probably over 60 mph.” In an email to The Associated Press, she complained that the junction where the crashed occurred is accident-prone.

“We have had 3 tractor trailer type trucks run through the stop through our driveway and into a field behind the business,” Kirby wrote. “All of these occurred during business hours and could’ve killed someone then.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement that state police are working with federal and local authorities investigating the crash.

“My heart breaks for the 20 people who lost their lives in this horrific accident on Saturday in Schoharie,'' the statement said.

Contributing: The Associated Press.