A co-owner of a Massachusetts trucking company was sentenced to two months in prison after admitting that he falsified driving logs and lied to investigators in connection with a June 2019 fatal collision involving the driver of one of the company’s vehicles.
Dunyadar “Damien” Gasanov, 39, of West Springfield, co-owner of now-defunct Westfield Transport, pleaded guilty in August in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to three counts of making false statements to federal investigators.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni also sentenced him to one year of supervised release, during which he is prohibited from driving a commercial vehicle.
Federal prosecutors had recommended a sentence of one year in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s sentencing memorandum.
According to court documents, Damien Gasanov also admitted that he had lied about how long he had known the Westfield Transport driver, Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, who was involved in the 2019 fatal crash in which seven motorcyclists of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club died in Randolph, New Hampshire. He also admitted to knowing that Zhukovskyy had been charged with operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol years before the crash, according to court documents.
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According to Westfield Transport’s business filings with the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office, Dunyadar Gasanov, who was listed as the supervisor of Westfield Transport, was indicted in February 2021, along with his brother, Dartanayan Gasanov, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Business filings with the state agency listed Dartanayan Gasanov as president, treasurer, secretary and director of the shuttered auto transport company.
“By falsifying safety records and lying to investigators, [Damien Gasanov] put profits over public safety, with potentially devastating consequences,” said acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy in a statement. “Adhering to federal safety regulations is critical to protecting public safety and our office is committed to holding accountable anyone who flouts them in this manner.”
Westfield driver acquitted
In July 2022, a jury acquitted Westfield Transport’s driver Zhukovskyy, now 30, of killing seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club. He originally faced seven counts of negligent homicide, seven counts of manslaughter and one court of reckless conduct in the collision on June 19, 2019, in rural New Hampshire.
However, jurors found that the lead motorcyclist of the Jarheads, Albert “Woody” Mazza, was impaired and over the centerline of the road at the time of the collision. Zhukovskyy was pulling an empty flatbed trailer at the time of the crash. It was his first trip as a driver for Westfield Transport.
What happened?
According to court documents, from May 2019 to June 23, 2019, the owners of Westfield Transport allegedly falsified driving logs “in order to evade federal regulations designed to ensure the safety of roadways and drivers.”
In court filings, Dunyadar Gasanov admitted that he had instructed at least one Westfield Transport employee to falsify records to exceed hours-of-service limits. He then “made a false statement to a federal inspector regarding the manipulation of recording devices that track drivers’ on and off duty hours in order to evade regulations,” according to federal prosecutors.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an independent agency called in to investigate the fatal crash, claims in its report that Westfield Transport’s owners tried to add Zhukovskyy to its insurance policy an hour after the driver was involved in the fatal crash.
NTSB investigators also confirmed that on the day of the fatal crash, Zhukovskky was using paper logs.
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