A preliminary report detailing actions taken by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles has been slammed by Gov. Charlie Baker as “completely unacceptable” the state’s top leader said Monday, 10 days after the Randolph, N.H. crash that killed seven motorcyclists including a former Haverhill man.
During a press conference Monday, Baker said the agency “failed to act on critical information” when they received word that Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, the West Springfield truck driver police say was behind the wheel on June 21, was arrested for drunken driving in Connecticut on May 11.
In an effort to correct the actions of the RMV, Department of Transportation general counsel Marie Breen and acting registrar of motor vehicles Jamey Tesler said Monday that hundreds of licenses have since been suspended.
“We now know that the registry has not been acting on information communicated by other states that in some circumstances should have triggered the suspension of a driver’s license. Actions are already underway to correct these lapses and 630 operators have been suspended to date,” a preliminary report of findings from the DOT said Monday.
Also on Monday, the agency said Zhukovskyy is said to have refused a breathalyzer test when he was arrested in Connecticut, which should have triggered the suspension of his license in Massachusetts. Instead, a critical flaw in bookkeeping left a notification for the Massachusetts RMV stuck in a backlog of notices that needed to be manually addressed by RMV personnel.
“The RMV failed to act on critical information,” Baker said, responding to news that a queue of 365 notices of serious offenses requiring manual, including the notice from Connecticut about Zhukovskyy was found.
Over the next six weeks, the RMV will conduct an electronic review of all driver records “out of an abundance of caution” and revamp state-to-state notification and real-time processing protocols, the RMV said Monday.
Former Haverhill resident Albert “Woody” Mazza Jr., 59, of Lee, N.H., was among those killed when, New Hampshire State Police say, a Dodge pickup truck “collided with several motorcycles.” The motorcyclists were part of Jarheads Motorcycle Club who were riding to a charity event at the American Legion in Gorham, N.H. The club consists of active duty or honorably discharged marines and FMF Corpsmen.
Zhukovskyy is facing seven counts of negligent homicide.