DOVER, N.H. — The widow of one of the seven motorcyclists killed in a deadly crash in Randolph is suing the trucking company that hired the driver charged in her husband’s death.
Mary Lou Welch’s lawyer, Chuck Douglas, filed the suit in Strafford County Superior Court.
It claims Westfield Transport, of West Springfield, Massachusetts negligently hired Volodymyr Zhukovskyy despite his troubled driving record.
It also gives more insight into the man who was the president and a founding father of the Jarheads Motorcycle club, Albert “Woody” Mazza Jr., who was a Marine veteran.
Welch is described in court documents as Mazza’s common-law wife. She said in the documents of Mazza, “His energy, spirit, heart and soul, radiated wherever he went.”
“Unfortunately, the only thing the justice system can do is for some accountability through a financial award, but it is not the same as having him here for the next 30 years,” said Welch’s attorney, Chuck Douglas.
Mazza’s wife was riding in a car not far behind the group the day of the crash in June.
She says in the complaint, “As we started to pull onto the road, we heard a big explosion and saw trees on fire and bikes all over the road.”
When she got to the scene, she said she tried to run to where she thought her husband would be, saying, “I will never forget what I saw and heard that day my husband was killed.”
The complaint delves into Zhukovskyy’s past, including an OUI arrest May 11 in Connecticut, just over a month before the crash. Court documents say, “Westfield Transport hired him nonetheless.”
“The trucking company should never had had him on the road, and this is her way of making them accountable,” Douglas said.
In a recent phone call with WMUR, a man who answered the company’s number said Westfield Transport was no longer in business.
Welch’s attorney said in the future, family members of victims may take legal action against the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles for its failure to suspend Zhukovskyy’s license after his OUI arrest in Connecticut.
Source: WMUR