Share

Massachusetts lawmakers passed a bill in the final hours of the session on Beacon Hill that would prevent hundreds of truck and bus drivers from losing their livelihoods — a story that Ben Has Your Back began covering after affected drivers reached out to NewsCenter 5.

The measure sent to Gov. Maura Healey's desk changes the state's law on commercial driver's licenses. It comes after the Registry of Motor Vehicles informed nearly 500 people with commercial driver's licenses that they were about to have their credential revoked. In many cases, the revocation was tied to decades-old offenses from long before they earned the CDL.

"I got the letter, and I saw how old the infractions were and I thought, 'Oh, oh, this is a mistake of some kind,'" said Walter McCloskey, a truck driver.

Many of the affected drivers said the RMV was unexpectedly digging up offenses — including OUI or refusing a breathalyzer, from the 1980s or 1990s — which many thought were in their rear-view mirrors.

Mike McDonald, who works at Ground Effects Landscaping in Carver, has a perfect record as a truck driver, but that didn't matter to the state when his license was revoked because of an OUI he had back in 1987.

"I would lose my house because I can't make rent," he said. "Can't go on unemployment because I got fired."

When McDonald first applied for a CDL in 2017, the RMV told him he required special clearance from a state Board of Appeal, which he did obtain.

"They said you're fine to go, I have a letter, I went to go get my CDL. I've been driving ever since," he said.

Lawmakers took notice but, initially, the RMV refused to hit the brakes.

"If somebody had an infraction 40 years ago, does that mean they shouldn't be able to drive a truck or a bus for the rest of their life?" NewsCenter 5 asked State Sen. Patrick O'Connor.

"No. No, it doesn't," he answered. "And I think we need to be smarter and more pragmatic to our approach how we do this."

The RMV's regulations required it to disqualify drivers for life from holding a CDL for two or more of a long list of infractions, but that's something not required under federal or state law. Legally, drivers are allowed to get their truck or bus licenses back after 10 years of clean driving.

"We understand that this is inconvenient for our users. We understand that," Secretary of Transportation Monica Tibbits-Nutt said when asked about the issue this fall.

With growing bipartisan support on Beacon Hill to force the RMV to make changes, the governor stepped in last month and ordered a change in regulations. Healey also asked lawmakers to change the law to exclude offenses that occurred before 2005.

"There's no question that these old archaic violations that were committed so many years ago have no bearing on whether that person is a safe driver now. And everyone I've spoken to have maintained a clean record," said Brian Simoneau, an attorney defending several of the bus drivers.

Now that lawmakers completed and passed the bill, Healey has 10 days to sign the measure into law.

Additionally, the RMV has until the end of February to change its internal regulations to comply with Healey's order.