New Hampshire motorcycle crash that killed 7 spurs investigation of Mass. trucking company

Joey Garrison
Westfield Transport hired Volodymyr Zhukovskyy despite his driving history. He's charged with killing 7 people in a motorcycle crash in Randolph, NH.

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office has launched an investigation into the trucking company that employed a driver who last month killed seven motorcyclists when he crossed a double-yellow line on a highway in rural New Hampshire.

The state's investigation into Westfield Transport Inc., based in West Springfield, Massachusetts, comes as Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, who was driving for the company, faces seven counts of vehicular homicide for the June 21 crash in Randolph, New Hampshire.

“We have opened an investigation into Westfield Transport over its role in the tragic crash in New Hampshire," a spokeswoman for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, said in statement. She declined to comment further.

More: Driver charged in 7 motorcycle deaths has arrest records in 6 states

The scope of the investigation is unclear. Zhukovskyy, 23, had a Massachusetts commercial driver's license when he crashed his 2016 Dodge 2500 pick-up truck and trailer into a group of Marine Jarheads MC bikers. It was his third day working for the company.

However, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, under intense scrutiny since the crash, has acknowledged that the state should have suspended his license following a May drunken-driving charge in Connecticut.

It was just one of several drug- and traffic-related arrests for Zhukovskyy that span multiple states dating back to an operating under the influence offense in 2013. He was also involved in a rollover crash in Texas less than three weeks before the New Hampshire crash. He was hired this year by Westfield Transport despite his driving history.

More: More than 1,600 drivers now suspended after deadly New Hampshire motorcycle crash

The company, owned by Dartanyan Gasanov, could not be reached for comment.

Records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration show Westfield Transport has been cited for dozens of violations in the last two years, including two instances in which drivers were in possession of narcotic drugs.

The company currently employs five drivers and has five trucks, according to the same federal agency.

More: Deadly N.H. motorcycle crash leads Mass. governor to push tougher driver's license regulations

WPRI-TV reported that Zhukovskyy had racked up at least 69 violations between February 2018 and May 2019, citing records from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Other citations were made for unsafe driving practices, including speeding, failure to stay in their lane and having an unauthorized passenger in a commercial vehicle.

Last week Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker proposed new legislation that would create new tougher standards to obtain and keep commercial driver's licenses in the commonwealth, a move inspired by the crash in New Hampshire.

Reach Joey Garrison on Twitter @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Westfield Transport investigated after Zhukovskyy's Randolph, NH crash