Massachusetts

After Deadly Crash, MassDOT Demands Answers on Interstate Driving Records From RMV

"I truly find it incomprehensible as to how someone, anyone considered it acceptable to place suspension documents into bins, then place them into storage without being processed"

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is demanding answers from the state's Registry of Motor Vehicles, which ignored Connecticut's warnings about the record of the truck driver allegedly at fault in the crash that killed seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire this June.

Tranportation department officials met with their counterparts at the RMV Wednesday to discuss improving state-to-state records amid several probes. An investigation by MassDOT has found the Bay State was not properly processing out-of-state notifications about driving offenses, but instead placing them into storage bins.

"I truly find it incomprehensible as to how someone, anyone considered it acceptable to place suspension documents into bins, then place them into storage without being processed," said Tim King, a member of the department's board.

The notification that was tucked away was that of 23-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, the truck driver who was charged with the deaths of the motorcyclists. He had previously been arrested in Connecticut for drunken driving and the Constitution State said it properly alerted Massachusetts of his arrest.

Zhukovskyy has pleaded not guilty in the deadly crash.

Since Zhukovskyy’s lengthy record of driving incidents came to light, Massachusetts’ registrar of motor vehicles resigned from her title and MassDOT launched an internal investigation into the state-to-state data sharing processes at the registry.

Amid the investigation, more than 1,600 Bay State drivers have had their licenses suspended.

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