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NBC10 Boston also helped Max Xu, a college student in Boston, and Steve Hanlon, a landscaper in Mashpee. The same thing had happened to Paul McCarthy, a business owner in Leicester who received an invalid suspension for an out-of-state speeding ticket just as the coronavirus pandemic arrived.
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Yang's license was suspended for a 2015 speeding ticket in Virginia that he'd already settled years ago.
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That's when he came across NBC10 Boston's previous investigations into license suspensions, and saw how we helped Lexington driver James Yang get back behind the wheel after he was caught up in a similar debacle. "In the midst of a pandemic, it was just one step after another of not getting any answers," Murphy said. Murphy said the employee told him there was nothing he could do to change the suspension. But it was a fruitless drive to Brockton. So while he struggled to get his suspension resolved, he relied on co-workers to pick him up and bring him the 15 miles to Otis Air National Guard Base.Īfter numerous attempts to reach the RMV by phone, Murphy eventually set up an appointment with a suspension hearing officer. Murphy, the driver on the Cape, serves full-time with the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

"The RMV does not have the statutory authority to apply discretion and consider extenuating circumstances to appeal or overturn those suspensions, a duty that state law instead gives to the Board of Appeals in cases for drivers it finds equitable to do so," reads a statement provided to NBC10 Boston by the RMV.

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States use a dictionary of codes to transmit driving records to one another, and if another state tags an offense with the code for reckless driving, the RMV must issue an automatic suspension, according to a spokeswoman for the registry. While RMV officials acknowledge the problem, they say the registry has no way to fix it. That's less than 4% of all cases decided by the board. Records reviewed by the NBC10 Boston Investigators show in 207 cases – nearly half of those in which the board reached a decision – suspensions were annulled, meaning they were found to be invalid and completely erased from the driver's record.Īn additional 218 suspensions were modified, meaning in many of those cases, the driver was allowed back on the road with their license partially or fully reinstated. And many of those suspensions were ultimately thrown out. Last year, before the RMV scandal surfaced, only a dozen drivers appealed suspensions for reckless driving, according to records provided by the Division of Insurance.īut at least 500 reckless driving appeals have been filed since then. When drivers in Massachusetts feel a suspension was issued in error, they can plead their case to the Board of Appeal on Motor Vehicle Liability and Bonds. "And it's really hard for them to get it straightened out and get justice." Suspensions by the numbers

"People are being punished and having sanctions against them who are completely innocent," defense lawyer Peter Elikann said. The registry revealed last year that it failed to act on thousands of violations committed by Massachusetts drivers in other states, potentially allowing dangerous drivers to stay on the road.īut as it worked to fix the problem, the RMV created new headaches for hundreds of drivers, issuing license suspensions that were later modified or found to be invalid, according to records obtained by the NBC10 Boston Investigators. Suspensions for reckless driving have soared in recent months as the RMV clears a massive backlog of violation notices that it long ignored. "Why would an event that happened in a different state that I already settled result in Massachusetts taking away my license for 60 days and requiring me to pay $500 to get it back?"Īnd Murphy isn't alone in his predicament. "I was just in shock," Murphy said, recalling the moment he opened the letter. Massachusetts doesn't have a careless driving statute, and when the RMV learned of that fender-bender in Florida, it likened the offense to reckless driving – a more serious criminal charge that carries a mandatory suspension in Massachusetts.

If you're convicted of drunk driving in Connecticut, for example, you could lose your license in Massachusetts.īut laws differ from one state to the next. Under reciprocal agreements with other states, Massachusetts punishes drivers for offenses they commit in other jurisdictions. Accident in Brockton Involving Three Vehicles Sends At Least Two People to Hospital
