MAKING AMENDS FOR past inaction, Rhode Island regulators plan to send the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles roughly 22,500 notices about infractions committed by Bay State drivers in the Ocean State dating back two years. The massive data transfer will cover a range of violations including some triggering immediate suspensions, according to an update distributed […]
RMV
Posted inTransportation
RMV board asks for watchdog’s help
THE QUASI-INDEPENDENT board tasked with overseeing the state’s driver’s license database asked for a little help from the inspector general on Wednesday, and took some steps towards hiring a new permanent director. It was only the second meeting of the Merit Rating Board in several years and the first since the organization publicly fired […]
Posted inUncategorized
Bowes out at RMV’s Merit Rating Board
THOMAS BOWES was publicly fired Tuesday and jettisoned from an executive position within the Registry of Motor Vehicles where he had allowed thousands of infraction notifications to pile up unaddressed from out-of-state. Revelations about the immense backlog at the Merit Rating Board, where Bowes was director, came about during an internal review at the RMV, […]
Posted inTransportation
Why didn’t Deveney sound the alarm?
IN MID-MAY, Erin Deveney was at a regional conference of registrars when she bumped into Elizabeth Bielecki, her counterpart in New Hampshire. The two registrars started talking about information-sharing, and Deveney urged Bielecki to resume sending notifications to her office about Massachusetts drivers who commit violations in New Hampshire electronically rather than by mail. “I […]
Posted inPolitics
Senator calls for Registry official to go
AS POLICYMAKERS INVESTIGATE how things could have gone so wrong at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday suggested the problems long preceded his administration while a state senator called for the resignation of at least one official who allowed notices to pile up without dealing with them. On Tuesday Sen. Eric […]
Posted inPolitics
Lawmakers call Pollack back next week on RMV
SETTING THE STAGE for another confrontation with the Baker administration, leaders of the Transportation Committee on Wednesday scheduled a hearing next week in their ongoing probe of the massive procedural failure connected to a fatal crash in New Hampshire last month. Unless something has changed since Monday, that schedule doesn’t mesh with Transportation Secretary Stephanie […]
Posted inPolitics
Frustrated lawmakers abruptly end RMV oversight hearing
This story was updated. FRUSTRATED OVER THE lack of cooperation from the Baker administration on a legislative probe into extensive failures at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, lawmakers cut short their oversight hearing Monday morning, essentially telling Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack to come back when she had something to tell them. An “extremely disappointed” House […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker bill seeks new rules for commercial drivers
JUST UNDER A MONTH after a truck crash that killed seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire, Gov. Charlie Baker filed legislation Friday that he says would enhance safety by keeping dangerous commercial drivers off the road. The bill aims to accomplish that goal by increasing penalties for repeat bad drivers and requiring trucking businesses to sign […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Interstate finger-pointing after deadly crash
It seems well established that Volodymyr Zhukovskyy drove the truck that killed seven motorcyclists in the White Mountains last weekend, but what is less clear why he still had a license to drive it. The deadly crash has opened up a rift between state transportation officials in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and also spurred a review […]
Posted inThe Download
Interstate finger-pointing after deadly crash
It seems well established that Volodymyr Zhukovskyy drove the truck that killed seven motorcyclists in the White Mountains last weekend, but what is less clear why he still had a license to drive it. The deadly crash has opened up a rift between state transportation officials in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and also spurred a review […]