Military News
Trucker Acquitted in Marine Vets Motorcycle Crash Gets License Suspension Extended 2 Years



Volodymyr Zhukovskyy looks back at the gallery before closing statements at his trial at Coos County Superior Court, in Lancaster, N.H., Aug. 9, 2022. (David Lane/Union Leader via AP, Pool, File)

Associated Press | By Holly Ramer
Published July 11, 2024 at 3:52pm ET

CONCORD, N.H. — A commercial truck driver who was acquitted in the 2019 deaths of seven motorcyclists won't be eligible to get his license back for another two years, New Hampshire safety officials said. ... A jury in 2022 found Volodymyr Zhukovskyy not guilty of multiple manslaughter and negligent homicide counts stemming from the June 21, 2019, collision in Randolph that killed seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, an organization of Marine Corps veterans and their spouses in New England.

Zhukovskyy’s Massachusetts license was automatically suspended in New Hampshire after his arrest following the crash, but he sought to reinstate it earlier this year. An administrative law judge for the Department of Safety upheld the suspension in May, and after a hearing last month, issued an order Wednesday extending it until June 2026, seven years after the crash. ... Seven years is the maximum allowed under the law. The state had argued the clock should start this year, meaning the license would remain suspended until 2031. Zhukovskyy’s lawyer wanted the suspension lifted by backdating the start to 2019 and suspending the final two years of the maximum for good behavior.

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At his trial, prosecutors argued that Zhukovskyy — who had taken heroin, fentanyl and cocaine the day of the crash — repeatedly swerved back and forth before the collision and told police he caused it. But a judge dismissed eight impairment charges and his attorneys said the lead biker was drunk and not looking where he was going when he lost control of his motorcycle and slid in front of Zhukovskyy’s truck, which was pulling an empty flatbed trailer.

At the time, Zhukovskyy’s license should have been revoked because he had been arrested in Connecticut on a drunken driving charge in May 2019. Connecticut officials alerted the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, but Zhukovskyy’s license wasn’t suspended due to a backlog of out-of-state notifications about driving offenses. The Connecticut case is pending.

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