Massachusetts lawmakers are expressing outrage and calling for a review of the Registry of Motor Vehicles following a fatal accident in New Hampshire that resulted in the deaths of seven motorcyclists, according to the Boston Herald.
The driver of the truck, Vlodymyr Zhukovskyy, is charged with seven counts of negligent homicide for his role in the Friday night crash. It isn’t his first run in with the law. In 2013, he was arrested on OUI charges in Westfield, Massachusetts. And last month he was arrested on OUI charges again, this time in Connecticut.
Despite multiple OUIs, Zhukovskyy never had his commercial license revoked and was able to continue driving in Massachusetts.
Now, state Rep. William Straus, a Democrat from Mattapoisett who heads the Massachusetts House Transportation Committee, said he expects Gov. Charlie Baker's administration to devise a plan to combat this type of oversight, according to the Herald.
Republican state Rep. David DeCoste from Norwell went further, calling the oversight “egregious” and saying that an independent review should be conducted by the state auditor or a private firm. State Rep. Norman Orrall, a Lakeville Republican, said he supports this idea.
On Tuesday, Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack accepted the resignation of RMV head Erin Deveney.
In a statement following the resignation, Pollack admitted mistakes were made. She said the RMV “had not acted on information provided by the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles about a May 11 incident that should have triggered termination of this individual's commercial driver's license."
