‘EGREGIOUS GAPS’ AT RMV
NTSB blasts Registry for failing to act ahead of crash that killed seven
The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles “dropped the ball” in the years before a crash that killed seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire — “egregious gaps” that failed to get the driver off the road, the National Transportation Safety Board chairman said on Tuesday.
The Massachusetts RMV’s failure to revoke a truck driver’s license was a factor leading to last year’s crash that killed seven Jarheads Motorcycle Club members, the NTSB ruled at its meeting.
The crash was caused by an impaired driver, Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, NTSB determined, but the Mass RMV also played a role in the wreck. The board said the RMV should have revoked the West Springfield man’s driver’s license when the RMV was “notified of his loss of driving privileges in another state.”
Zhukovskyy at the time of the crash had a valid Massachusetts commercial driver’s license despite a recent OUI arrest in Connecticut. That should have triggered a license suspension.
“There were multiple failures in multiple levels of the system, the system that is supposed to provide a safety net to protect us when we’re out on our nation’s roadways,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said.
He added that they found “egregious gaps” with the Massachusetts RMV.
The June crash led to the sudden removal of Registrar Erin Deveney, and discoveries of institutional problems going back years at the RMV.
Registry employees ended up finding rooms full of bins of paper notices from other states meant to notify Massachusetts of driving infractions by Bay State residents.
“I was astounded by that,” Sumwalt said of the boxes filled with thousands of unprocessed notifications, later adding, “They obviously knew they had a problem, but they just weren’t addressing it. Clearly, the Massachusetts RMV dropped the ball.”
Westfield Transport, the since-disbanded trucking company that employed Zhukovskyy, was also cited in the NTSB’s probable cause ruling.
“Contributing to the crash was Westfield Transport’s substantial disregard for and egregious noncompliance with safety regulations,” the NTSB ruled.
Zhukovskyy is facing 23 charges, including homicide.
The board also recommended that states across the country “review existing procedures or develop new ones to accurately and expeditiously process notifications received from other states about infractions and suspensions … and notify other jurisdictions of infractions and suspensions.”
The NTSB acknowledges that the RMV has made progress in its efforts improving state-to-state communications, MassDOT spokesperson Jacquelyn Goddard said in a statement, adding a federal system “for communications regarding out-of-state events or sanctions” is needed.