CONCORD, New Hampshire — The final rider in a bunch of Marine motorbike membership members testified Wednesday that he noticed a “ball of flame” after which a truck “plowing by bikes 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 stated 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 stated 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 noticed that I couldn’t do something for them, I lined them up,” he stated.
One other rider who died was thrown off a motorbike and located within the woods, he stated. One was slumped over bushes. One other was pinned underneath the trailer.
McEachern noticed that the truck was on fireplace. He bumped into the motive force.
“He simply jumped out of the truck, began screaming, ‘What did I do, What did I do? Mommy, Mommy! Oh my God, Oh my God!’” McEachern testified in state superior courtroom in Lancaster.
He stated he tried to maintain Zhukovskyy away from the burning truck, however that Zhukovskyy made journeys again to the automobile to retrieve objects.
McEachern stated he requested Zhukovskyy what had occurred. “He talked about he misplaced management of the trailer,” he stated.
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 stated Zhukovskyy had taken medicine that day and was driving recklessly. However his attorneys stated he was not impaired on the time. They stated the president of the Jarheads Bike Membership, Albert “Woody” Mazza, who led the pack of riders, was drunk, misplaced management of his motorbike, 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,” stated Valerie Ribeiro, who was a passenger on her husband’s motorbike. “Similar to a toy flying by the air.
“All the things was on fireplace. It was motorbike components all over the place. It was like a bomb had gone off,” she testified.
She stated Wednesday the “entrance quarter” of the truck was over the road. However protection legal professional Steve Mirkin stated Ribeiro didn’t point out that in her preliminary assertion to police the day after the crash.
One other 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 motorbike. Nevertheless, Mirkin identified the rider instructed police just a few days after the crash that the tire was on prime of the yellow line, “or much more so.”
Different motorcyclists who had been at the back of 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 Harmony, New Hampshire; Daniel Pereira, of Riverside, Rhode Island; and Aaron Perry, of Farmington, New Hampshire.
A number of bikers had been additionally injured.
Story by Kathy McCormack.
