This week, Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles Erin Deveney resigned over a fatal crash involving a West Springfield man now facing charges of negligent homicide. The crash killed seven motorcyclists in northern New Hampshire.
Volodymyr Zhukovskyy had also been charged with drunk driving in Connecticut in May.
Massachusetts transportation officials said Connecticut officials didn't provide enough information to suspend his commercial drivers license. But Connecticut disputed that, and said Zhukovskyy shouldn't have been driving with his commercial license.
"All the documentation, all the electronic verification, shows that Massachusetts did get this information — and it was coded, which shows that he did not submit to an alcohol test. Therefore it disqualified his CDL," Tony Guerrera of the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles said earlier this week.
Panelist Dave Eisenstadter said things will sometimes fall through the cracks — and tech systems are going to improve.
"I'm sure this stuff happens sometimes," he said. "This is just a high-profile example where people's lives were lost. There was a resignation — if that's how they felt it was appropriate to proceed, I think that's the right decision."
Governor Charlie Baker has been dealing with more headaches with the MBTA recently — and now this.
Panelist Ron Chimelis said he'd be surprised if transportation ended up being a political liability for Baker as he continues through his second term.
"I think it's a stretch to blame Charlie Baker for what happened here," Chimelis said. "That won't stop some people from doing it. But I think most people are going to look at this as a DOT problem. I think there's some people who feel that necessairly, the resignation — if this was an isolated case, was that really necessary? I'd be very suprised if Baker takes the fallout and the hit from this."
In Easthampton, Massachusetts, officials are asking the state legislature to OK a bill that would allow ranked-choice voting in city elections. In such a system, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If one candidate receives 50 percent of the first-choice votes cast, the candidate is declared the winner. If not, an instant runoff occurs in which the candidate who received the least number of votes in the prior round is eliminated and all the ballots are recounted based on voters' highest-ranked remaining candidate. The process is repeated until one candidate receives at least 50 percent of the total.
The Massachusetts Governor's Council this week narrowly approved Springfield prosecutor Karen McCarthy for the parole board. The 5-3 vote came a week after a contentious confirmation hearing in which several councillors said they were concerned about having too much of a law enforcement presence on the board, and not enough members with a social-service background. McCarthy told the panel she would be treated differently if she were "a white man".
And the UConn athletic department is on the move. The universityaccepted an invitation to re-join the Big East Conference in most sports. The departure from the American Athletic Conference does leave questions about the football program since the Big East doesn't sponsor the sport.
Guests:
- Dave Eisenstadter, managing editor, Valley Advocate
- Ron Chimelis, columnist, Springfield Republican
