CONCORD, N.H. — The final rider in a bunch of Marine bike membership members testified Wednesday that he noticed a “ball of flame” after which a truck “plowing through motorcycles like a bowling ball” in a 2019 crash in New Hampshire that killed seven bikers.
Michael McEachern testified within the trial of the truck driver, Volodymyr Zhukovskyy. He mentioned he noticed the westbound truck, which was pulling a flatbed trailer, hit a few of the eastbound riders shortly after the group left a motel to go to an American Legion put up for a gathering that June 21.
He mentioned he tried to assist them, however he noticed that some had died, together with a husband and spouse discovered beneath the truck’s entrance bumper.
“After I saw that I couldn’t do anything for them, I covered them up,” he mentioned.
Another rider who died was thrown off a motorcycle and located within the woods, he mentioned. One was slumped over bushes. Another was pinned underneath the trailer.
McEachern noticed that the truck was on fireplace. He bumped into the driving force.
“He just jumped out of the truck, started screaming, ‘What did I do, What did I do? Mommy, Mommy! Oh my God, Oh my God!’” McEachern testified in state superior court docket in Lancaster.
He mentioned he tried to maintain Zhukovskyy away from the burning truck, however that Zhukovskyy made journeys again to the automobile to retrieve objects.
McEachern mentioned he requested Zhukovskyy what had occurred. “He mentioned he lost control of the trailer,” he mentioned.
Zhukovskyy, 26, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, has pleaded not responsible to a number of counts of negligent murder, manslaughter, driving underneath the affect and reckless conduct. He’s been in jail for the reason that crash.
Prosecutors mentioned Zhukovskyy had taken medicine that day and was driving recklessly. But his attorneys mentioned he was not impaired on the time. They mentioned the president of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, Albert “Woody” Mazza, who led the pack of riders, was drunk, misplaced management of his bike, and got here into contact with Zhukovskyy’s truck first, inflicting the crash. Mazza died.
Two riders touring nearer to Mazza testified that a part of the truck had crossed the yellow line, after which hit Mazza.
“His bike went flying backwards,” mentioned Valerie Ribeiro, who was a passenger on her husband’s bike. “Just like a toy flying via the air.
“Everything was on fire. It was motorcycle parts everywhere. It was like a bomb had gone off,” she testified.
She mentioned Wednesday the “front quarter” of the truck was over the road. But protection legal professional Steve Mirkin mentioned Ribeiro didn’t point out that in her preliminary assertion to police the day after the crash.
Another rider who additionally was touring close to Mazza testified that the truck’s left entrance tire was over the road, probably by as a lot as a foot, earlier than the truck hit Mazza’s bike. However, Mirkin identified the rider advised police a number of days after the crash that the tire was on prime of the yellow line, “or even more so.”
Other motorcyclists who had been behind the group testified Wednesday that they noticed Mazza ingesting beer earlier that day, however that they didn’t see any indicators that he was impaired.
The motorcyclists who died had been from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and ranged in age from 42 to 62. They had been half of a bigger group that had simply left a motel alongside U.S. Route 2 in Randolph.
Killed had been Mazza, of Lee, New Hampshire; Edward and Jo-Ann Corr, a pair from Lakeville, Massachusetts; Michael Ferazzi, of Contoocook, New Hampshire; Desma Oakes, of Concord, New Hampshire; Daniel Pereira, of Riverside, Rhode Island; and Aaron Perry, of Farmington, New Hampshire.
Several bikers had been additionally injured.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”