RMV Review Results In More Than 800 Suspended Licenses

BOSTON (CBS) - A thorough review of Massachusetts drivers' out-of-state violations has resulted in 869 drivers being suspended.

Acting Registrar Jamey Tesler issued an 8-page interim report Thursday, which said the Registry of Motor Vehicles has worked with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators to review the records of all 5.2 million Massachusetts drivers and compare them with those of the National Driver Register (NDR) database.

"While over 99 percent of the Massachusetts records matched up with the information on suspendable offenses in the NDR, the process identified discrepancies between the state driver records and NDR that need to be validated and, where necessary, resolved. RMV staff have therefore been actively reviewing and validating whether approximately 4,724 potentially open convictions and/or suspensions concerning serious violations can be confirmed to belong to a specific driver. To date, as explained in further detail below, 869 drivers have been suspended via this process," Tesler wrote.

The review comes after the discovery that the RMV should have terminated Volodymyr Zhukovskyy's CDL because he refused a chemical test during a drunk driving investigation in Connecticut in May. The RMV failed to act on information when that incident occurred. Further investigation revealed the RMV failed to take action against Massachusetts drivers who committed violations in other states, leading to the resignation of Registrar Erin Deveney.

Police say Zhukovskyy was driving a pickup truck towing a trailer when he collided with a group of motorcyclists on Route 2 in Randolph, N.H. Seven people died in the accident.

Tesler also said that there was no evidence the RMV had a consistent process to notify other states of driver violations that had occurred in Massachusetts. The RMV is now sending out about 45,000 notifications dating back to March 2018.

Tesler said that the RMV is creating an Out of State Notification Processing Unit, which will likely be operational in September.