Truck driver charged with 7 homicides in motorcycle crash

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The driver of a truck in a fiery collision on a rural New Hampshire highway that killed seven motorcyclists was charged today with seven counts of negligent homicide, and records show he was stopped on suspicion of drunken driving last month and in 2013.

Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 23, was arrested this morning at his home in West Springfield, Mass., on a fugitive-from-justice charge related to Friday's crash, the New Hampshire attorney general's office said.

He was expected to make a court appearance on the charge later today in Springfield.

Zhukovskyy was questioned at the scene of the crash and allowed to return to Massachusetts, the National Transportation Safety Board has said. The fugitive charge is standard for someone charged in a warrant in another state, Massachusetts State Police said.

Records show Zhukovskyy was arrested on drunken-driving charges last month and in 2013.

He was stopped by police in East Windsor, Conn., on May 11, state court records show. Details were not available; a message seeking comment was left for his lawyer in that case.

Additionally, Zhukovskyy was arrested for drunken driving in 2013 in Westfield, Mass., state motor vehicle records show. He was placed on probation for one year and had his license suspended for 210 days, The Westfield News reported.

A man who answered the phone at the home of Zhukovskyy's family and would identify himself only as his brother-in-law said today the family is in shock and feeling the same pain as everyone else but couldn't say whether the driver was right or wrong.

Since the accident, the brother-in-law said, Zhukovskyy had remained in his room, not eaten and talked to no one.

Zhukovskyy's pickup truck, towing a flatbed trailer, collided with a group of 10 motorcycles Friday on a two-lane highway in the northern New Hampshire community of Randolph, investigators said. The truck was traveling west when it struck the eastbound group of motorcycles.

The victims were members or supporters of the Marine JarHeads, a New England motorcycle club that includes Marines and their spouses, and ranged in age from 42 to 62. Four were from New Hampshire, two from Massachusetts and one from Rhode Island.