NTSB slams trucking company and RMV for administrative failures before deadly New Hampshire crash

The fatal accident driver at his arraignment.  A Don Treeger image via The Republican.

– News covered by Quincy Quarry News.

The fatal accident scene
Image via MassLive

NTSB slams trucking company and Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles for administrative failures before deadly New Hampshire crash.

The National Transit Safety Board review of the tragic accident that killed seven motorcyclist in New Hampshire last year found that a variety of systems that are supposed to help protect motorists failed to see that the commercial truck driver who caused the accident was stripped of his driver’s commercial driver’s license before the accident.

As previously addressed by Quincy Quarry, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles’ Quincy-based Merit Ratings Board failed to process a cancellation of the driver’s license after he was arrested for driving under the influence in Connecticut weeks before the fatal accident.

Mr. Congeniality
Image via the Republican

At the time, the Merit Ratings Board was headed by a said to be relative of Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch as well as that one of the mayor’s sisters was the board’s assistant director.  While these facts were apparently not highlighted in the NTSB findings, the Boston tabloid’s Howie Carr commented at length about these surely but coincidences previously.

As regards the Merit Ratings Board’s role in the accident, it had failed to process roughly five thousand out of state traffic violation notices on Massachusetts drivers that should have resulted in the cancellations of these drivers’ licenses, including the driver who allegedly killed the seven motorcyclists and injured others.

The failure to duly process violation notices dates back over years, if not decades. 

Merit Ratings Board a hack hire heaven no more
Image via Boston Herald

Even more troubling, the letters notifying the Merit Ratings Board of license suspending out of state traffic violations were randomly tossed into bins that were then piled up here, there and most everywhere storage space was available at the Merit Ratings Board’s offices in North Quincy. 

This dire failure by the Merit Rating Board to do a critical part of its job was addressed in a scathing review by the State Auditor’s Office and fixes were said to be in the works when the fatal accident in New Hampshire occurred on June 21 2019.

The National Transit Safety Board further criticized the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association for failing to see that the problematic Central Massachusetts-based trucking company that employed the truck driver had not done what it was obligated to do to properly document and monitor its drivers.

The fatal accident scene
A Miranda Thompson/AP photo

For example, the National Transit Safety Board found that the trucking company had both disconnected industry standard monitoring equipment on its trucks as well as had variously falsified records.

Additionally, the now defunct trucking company tried to add the reckless driver onto its employee insurance policy an hour after the fatal accident.

And finally, mandatory testing undertaken at the time of accident found that the driver had drugs in his system at the time of the crash including fentanyl, morphine and a chemical found in cocaine.  He is currently being held in custody as he awaits trial on multiple counts and which is currently expected to be held early next year.

Source: NTSB slams trucking company, RMV for administrative failures before deadly NH crash

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