‘Tragic outcomes’
RMV steps up safety checks, orders outside audit over ignored out-of-state violations
The Registry of Motor Vehicles has issued more than 1,100 suspensions to 876 drivers as it works through a backlog of out-of-state driver’s license violations that sat unchecked for more than a year — a fatal oversight that officials say will now lead to an external audit of the department and a renewed focus on safety.
“The lapses discovered at the registry are unacceptable, and the consequences of these lapses have had tragic outcomes,” Gov. Charlie Baker said Friday in a State House news conference.
Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack announced hundreds of additional suspensions Friday, along with plans to hire a deputy registrar for safety and for an external audit of the RMV by outside firm Grant Thornton. All 5.2 million Massachusetts driver’s license records will also be checked against the National Driver Registry.
Pollack said the RMV has finished processing the 53 bins full of alerts from other states dating back to March 2018 — plus another five boxes found in the Quincy headquarters — after officials revealed earlier this week no one was doing required manual checks on the infractions.
On Monday, officials said 655 suspensions had been issued to 546 drivers. Friday, Pollack said that total was now 940 suspensions issued to 746 drivers. Seventy-two boxes with violations dating from 2011 to 2017 were also located in the RMV’s Concord archive and rechecked, resulting in another 168 suspensions for 130 drivers — a number Pollack said is likely to increase as processing continues over the weekend. The suspensions are for serious infractions such as vehicular homicide, operating under the influence and refusal to take a chemical test.
The backlog of out-of-state violations included West Springfield trucker Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, who pleaded not guilty to killing seven motorcyclists in Randolph, N.H., June 21, despite a Connecticut OUI arrest on May 11 that should have triggered an automatic license suspension.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation said in a report issued Friday that it had fixed the software that allowed the Connecticut notification of Zhukovskyy’s driving suspension in that state to slip through the Massachusetts registry’s cracks.
Pollack said she believes the RMV has now “tracked down every paper copy” of any out-of-state violation notices for the last five years. She also said registry employees are reviewing out-of-state notifications either on the day they’re received or the business day thereafter.
While Pollack said the backlog of hundreds of infractions was “substantial,” she noted that the RMV suspends about 230,000 licensed Massachusetts drivers a year, including nearly 3,000 suspensions in May for operating under the influence and chemical test refusals alone.
Baker called the lapse in processing “completely unacceptable.”
“It’s clear there’s an immediate need to reprioritize public safety” at the RMV, he said, adding that he’s working on legislation to make commercial driver’s license requirements “more stringent.”
The “unprecedented step” of running all 5.2 million driver’s records against the national registry will serve as a “comprehensive safeguard” against any missing infractions, Baker said, since Massachusetts licenses are renewed every five years. That process is expected to begin July 15.
Grant Thornton’s audit begins Monday. The firm will issue a 30-day interim report and a 60-day final report, and will be paid at an hourly rate, the cost of which was not disclosed Friday.
While the Zhukovskyy incident led RMV chief Erin Deveney to resign, Baker said Pollack “continues to have the full confidence of this administration.”