RUNAWAY JEEP DRIVER’S LICENSE WAS SUSPENDED
The elderly auto auction employee who mowed down three people and injured nine others when he plowed an SUV into a crowd of customers Wednesday morning didn’t have an active driver’s license, the owner of the Billerica business said yesterday.
The driver, whose name hasn’t been released, had a suspended license when the Jeep Grand Cherokee he was driving into the Lynnway Auto Auction suddenly accelerated into a crowd of spectators about 10:15 a.m. before slamming through a cinder block wall, the auto auction’s president, Jim Lamb, said in a statement.
“We were informed by the police on Wednesday that the driver of the Jeep had a suspended license,” the statement read. “We were unaware of the change in status of the driver’s license until the police told us after the accident. When we hired him in 2010, he had a valid Massachusetts driver’s license.”
Lamb, who noted the business has had “no issues” with the man — who police say was in his 70s — said the business will install safety barriers to keep vehicles from leaving their designated lanes during auctions.
Authorities say Brenda Lopez, 48, and Pantaleon Santos, 49, both of Rhode Island, and Leezandra Aponte, 36, of Lowell, were killed in the incident and nine other people were hospitalized. The tragedy, which authorities say appears to have been an accident, is being investigated by state police detectives assigned to Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan’s office and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.