LANCASTER - The truck driver accused of recklessly causing the deaths of seven motorcyclists in 2019 including a Farmington man and his girlfriend waived arraignment and entered not guilty pleas on new charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide on Friday.
The amended charges no longer accuse Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 25, of Springfield, Mass., of crossing into the motorcyclists' lane as they previously had.
The group had just ventured from their New Hampshire motel in Randolph to a charity event in Berlin when the crash on Route 2.
Zhukovskyy still faces multiple counts of negligent homicide, manslaughter, driving under the influence and reckless conduct in the June 21, 2019, crash.
The victims were all members or friends with members of a Marines motorcycle club called the Jarheads.
The original indictments charge Zhukovskyy with seven counts of manslaughter in that he recklessly caused the deaths of Albert Mazza, Daniel Pereira, Michael Ferazzi, Edward Corr, Joan Corr, Aaron Perry, and Desma Oakes by "operating a 2016 Dodge 2500 truck with an attached trailer, upon Route 2, crossing into the opposite lane of travel, thereby causing a collision which caused the deaths of the victims."
But while State Police had originally found that Zhukovskyy's vehicle had crossed into the path of the bikers an independent study found that at least one of the Jarheads' bikes "was in fact protruding over onto the center line when it struck the truck."
Perry, 45, of Farmington, and his girlfriend. Oakes, 42, of Concord, were both among the victims.
The trial is set for December.