Only in Massachusetts: Special Report: RMV putting drivers deemed 'immediate threats' back behind the wheel

Two Bay State motorists deemed “immediate threats” to public safety after being involved in crashes that killed two kids — and a T bus driver caught playing chicken in her rig — are all back on the road because of lax registry rules, a Herald review found.

The survey of terrible motorists comes weeks after another reckless driver had been cleared to get his license back when authorities say he tore through Chatham near an ice cream parlor, killing one and maiming others.

“It’s bad enough when it happens once, but if it’s happening over and over and over again, then that’s a problem,” said Dalton Skerritt, who was shocked to hear Franklin Speed Jr., the driver who killed Skerritt’s wife and 1 1⁄2-year-old daughter in a horrific 2002 Roslindale crash, has been cited for multiple motor vehicle violations since he got his license back in 2004. “There’s two people dead. I would hope that he would change his behavior and not go back to the same ways that could harm people. If he’s going out and still getting tickets, then we have to intervene with laws and policies to help educate and prevent so it doesn’t happen again.”

A Herald review of Registry of Motor Vehicles records found:

• The RMV reinstated Speed’s license on Dec. 7, 2004, despite his lengthy record of drug and motor vehicle violations. Speed was deemed an immediate threat May 1, 2002, after witness accounts reported he crossed a double yellow line into oncoming traffic in the fatal crash. He was found not guilty of criminal charges for the 2002 crash but continued to collect motor vehicle citations — most recently in May for an improper turn in Dorchester, driving records obtained by the Herald state.

• Pierre R. Jeudy was given his license back Sept. 29, 2011 — less than three years after hitting a Brockton mother and her three children crossing the street in 2009. The RMV revoked his license as an immediate threat April 1, 2009, after the crash, which killed 3-year-old Christopher Mitchell. Jeudy, who had eight driving violations on his record, was later found not guilty of motor vehicle homicide.

Via: Boston Herald

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