BOSTON — An owner of a now defunct trucking company agreed to plead guilty Tuesday to federal charges related to a deadly crash in New Hampshire that killed seven motorcyclists.
Dunyadar Gasanov, 39, pled guilty in Springfield, Massachusetts to three counts of making false statements to federal investigators. The car transport company he owned, Westfield Transport, Inc., employed Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, a commercial truck driver who was involved in a 2019 crash that left seven motorcyclists dead in northern New Hampshire.
Gasanov was accused of falsifying driver logs to avoid federal road safety regulations including exceeding limits on the hours a driver can operate. He also instructed at least one employee to falsify records by deactivating logging devices in order to exceed the allowable driving hours and lied about it to federal investigators. He also claimed to federal investigators that he had met Zhukovskyy the day he was hired when, in fact, he had known him for years and was aware that Zhukovskyy had been charged with drunken driving.
“Keeping communities safe takes all forms. In this case, it is about making sure that operators of commercial vehicles adhere to all required safety procedures and regulations,” Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. “We will not forget the lives in June 2019 that relate to this conviction. This defendant flouted those laws that are critical to public safety, and he…
