The owners of a Massachusetts trucking company tied to a crash that killed seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire in 2019 have been charged for falsifying records and lying to authorities.
Dunyadar Gasanov, 36, and Dartanayan Gasanov, 35 -- both of West Springfield -- are charged with falsifying driving logs in order evade federal safety regulations between May and June of 2019. On June 21 that year, prosecutors say, one of the company's drivers crashed into the group of motorcyclists in Randolph, New Hampshire while under the influence of drugs, killing seven.
Additionally, Dunyadar Gasanov allegedly told at least one employee to falsify records, and then lied about it to a federal inspector, Lelling said.
According to U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, Dunyadar Gasanov was indicted on one count of falsification of records, one count of conspiracy to falsify records and one count of making a false statement to a federal investigator. He is wanted by authorities.
Dartanayan Gasanov, 35 -- also of West Springfield -- was indicted on one count of falsification of records and was arrested Friday morning.
The driver, Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, has pleaded not guilty to negligent homicide and driving under the influence and remains in custody ahead of a trial next year.
The Massachusetts resident was returning from delivering vehicles for Westfield Transport and was towing an empty flatbed trailer when the the crash happened.
Federal authorities last year found that the fiery crash, on a rural, two-lane highway in Randolph, was probably caused by the truck crossing the road's centerline while the driver was impaired on multiple drugs. Contributing were his trucking company's "substantial disregard for and egregious noncompliance with safety regulations" and the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles' failure to revoke the driver's license after he'd had driving privileges revoked in another state.
NTSB investigators told the board that Zhukovskyy had drugs, including opioids, in his system. They also said witnesses had reported him driving erratically.
Among the recommendation in the NTSB final report is one for the Registry of Motor Vehicles, which faced a reckoning in the wake of the crash over chronic backlogs in the processing of notifications sent by other states of infractions by Massachusetts drivers.
The NTSB recommended that the agency put together "appropriate metrics and establish a process to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of [its] processing of out-of-state notifications."
