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Other states notified RMV of Mass driver arrests and citations; RMV ignored hundreds of them

CommonWealth reports RMV workers ignored thousands of pages of documents pouring in from other states about Mass. residents charged with major motor-vehicle offenses - at least until officials decided to figure out how that guy from West Springfield who killed seven motorcyclists was still driving.

"There are whole rooms at the Quincy headquarters that are full of documents. We were not aware until last week that some of those documents were unprocessed out-of-state notifications," Pollack said.

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Comments

this is the most massachusetts thing ever. still floored that the head of the RMV bailed the second this was exposed. Way to quit on the job when things get tough!

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I assumed it was a forced resignation. AKA we're going to fire you, so you should probably just resign. This way they still get to keep their awesome state benefits and pension.

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Criminal drivers not being held accountable in Massachusetts is the least surprising thing ever. A drivers license may as well be a license to kill.

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Stop the empty resignation theater. Fire Pollack

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I was pulled over in Cambridge by the 'uncorruptable' State Police. They claim that I stopped in an intersection. Huh? Still scratching my head over that one.
Often, if you are polite and cooperative, they may give you a warning. Not these two flamers. First, they took forever to process the ticket; about 1/2 hour. I missed the event that I was driving to. They asked me if I had other moving violations...????

So they gave me a ticket. The document looked like a crumbled piece of copier paper. I was waiting for something more substantial in the mail, that would tell me how to combat the ticket. Nothing ever came in the mail.

But what did come in the mail was a nasty letter from the RMV -'if you don't pay this $110 by this date, then we will revoke your license'. Then, of course, I lost my safe driver discount and my insurance premiums are doubled for the next six years. On a 10-year old car.

So they had no problems tracking my ticket, but they let this murderer out on the road. He could have killed any one of us.

Also, I worked at the Turnpike and was exposed to the 'culture' there. There were some good, honest people, but there was a large contingency protected by the unions or diversity that didn't do their jobs. These people would never survive in the 'dreaded private sector', but they are thriving in the State culture.

Condolences to these families. A lovely trip for these bikers ended so tragically.

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Come if you can

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so we're just dumping it in a storeroom and hoping everyone will forget about it."

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At first I was concerned because that's an excavator trailer, a bit large to be pulled by a Dodge 2500. You usually see them behind ten wheelers. I thought the kid was sandbagged by his boss. Then the arrests/detainments started to pile up.
My answer? The Commonwealth should pass a one billion dollar transportation bill, then have a $700 million carve out. For the next of kin.
Then heads should roll. As one of the bikers said, "They have blood on their hands."

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Why isn’t this information being conveyed electronically?

Then send a paper copy for backup/crosschecking. One would think that an issue like suspension or revocation would have a sense of urgency.

Apparently not, and I’d bet that way more than seven people have died as a result of mismanagement.

PS: you’re absolutely right about that trailer being far too big for the pickup truck. How long has this company been fudging the rules regarding equipment and/or personnel behind the wheel?

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Nothing is ever Teflon Charlie's fault. Ever. Blame Beverly Scott!

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Pollack literally tried to blame Connecticut for the RMV fiasco. Its time to boot her out

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Pollack's family is a big supporter (donor) of Baker's. The Gov will blame Scott for the RMV and MBTA travails but not his own transportation secretary

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"There are whole rooms at the Quincy headquarters that are full of documents. We were not aware until last week that some of those documents were unprocessed out-of-state notifications," Pollack said.

We just thought they were some other kind of unprocessed documents that nobody cared about.

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of the Conservation and Stabalization Committee's file drawers full of unopened mail in the.Green Acres episode Parity Begins at Home?

Just throw it in that drawer. We'll get to it when we can.

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a Green Acres ref? That has to be a first for UHub!

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Pollack should be the next to go. Her insistence on micromanaging everything results in a systematic management paralysis at all levels of MassDOT and leads to things like this.

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Pollack wasn't around in 2014 when TWO different registry managers told me that I would have to reprobate my father's estate in Middlesex County in order to register a car that I OWNED from the time it was bought. My father lived in Oregon his entire life, btw. The car didn't go through probate in Oregon because the court said "if you are on the title, you already own the car".

Their website says that they honor the laws of other states. I presented them with a policy statement on title survivorship from the state of Oregon. I presented them with a printout of their own fucking website. I was told "we only do that when they match MA laws". BULLSHIT. They also said that they don't accept out of state death certificates.

So, where does this lead?

The work culture in the State of MA is insular, siloed, hierarchical, top-down command driven and exists in a bubble of complete disregard for anything not of its own doing. Federal rules - they don't matter here. We are MASSACHUSETTS and make our own shit up. Other states? SCOFF! They don't matter either and WE DO NOT TALK TO STRANGERS EVER AT ALL FOR ANY REASON BECAUSE MASSACHUSETTS IS SPECIAL.

I strongly suspect that these backward, feeble entrenched attitudes are what led to this - we don't talk to strangers, we ignore the laws of other states, and the federal government has nothing to say about it.

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According to other reporting, CT reported the eventual killer several times through several channels but it was ignored because the reports didn't meet some exact criteria established by the RMV.

Lots, lots of blame to go around here starting with the fact no governor (either party) or representative is interested in addressing this. And the voters/media focus on social issues over these embedded problems.

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The same independent panel reviewing JFK-UMASS should review the RMV. Pollack shouldn't review herself. The panel can work with Connecticut and produce a real report

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Wasn't there some clown who wanted transparency and professionalism in government???

Good thing we voted for professional politicians!

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Say it ain't so!!!

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displaced postal carriers who would simply toss or hoard mail rather than delivering it...

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It took SEVEN people to be killed by this guy for the state to look into why he had a license. Had he only killed one or two people, the state wouldn't have investigated why he had a license in the first place. When only one person is killed, their family is lucky if the driver is even charged with DWI.

It's far too easy to get away with intoxicated driving in Massachusetts. In the rare times when someone is caught and charged, the laws are such that it's hard to get a conviction. That needs to end. (But it won't since why would politicians prohibit something they like to do themselves?)

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It took SEVEN people to be killed by this guy for the state to look into why he had a license. Had he only killed one or two people, the state wouldn't have investigated why he had a license in the first place. When only one person is killed, their family is lucky if the driver is even charged with DWI.

Quoted for truth. If this guy had only killed one or two people, he would be forgotten already.

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Yup. Drivers around here kill so many people that 1 or 2 people killed would go completely unnoticed. Just the usual bloodshed on the roads. It takes a mass killing for criminal drivers to be held a tiny bit accountable.

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the state of Massachusetts isn't interested in enforcing laws on dangerous drivers? Well, this is...about what anyone expected, honestly.

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We clearly get a whole lotta nothing safety wise but way more bloated bureaucracy to let shit like this slip through the cracks. Awesome.

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Seven people, including Marine veterans, on motorcycles lost their lives and you are making it about byciclists: wake up to yourself.

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This justifies the contempt for "public servants". If this happened in the private sector, people would be fired. I mean, someone must've known this was going on. There are no excuses, none. Heads should roll, but won't.

This is shameful and is probably only the tip of the iceberg.

Family member drives big trucks, what he had to go through to get all his licenses in order and to keep them in order. Unfortunately, how many trucks do you see on the road (Box trucks, esp.) that are being driven by unlicensed people, i assume too many. I remember one time in Chelsea,a the box trucks came off the ramp, brakes failed and killed a woman. Driver took off and later found to be unlicensed, truck shouldn't have been on the road and I believe the company had many "issues".

I'm sure the owner of this particular trucking company can say goodbye to his business and get ready, the lawsuits are coming.

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The head of the RMV has already been quit-fired.

Give them more than a few days for the investigation to play out, maybe? Even in the private sector, you still have to play nice with employment laws.

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The same independent panel brought in to review JFK-UMASS should review the RMV. Pollack shouldn't review Pollack.

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