News

Driver in crash had suspended license, says Billerica auto auction

BILLERICA, Mass. — The driver of a Jeep that suddenly accelerated through an auto auction in Billerica did not have a valid license, according to the LynnWay Auto Auction.

The driver, a man in his 70s, was not injured in the crash. Three people were killed and more than 10 injured.

The LynnWay Auto Auction President Jim Lamb said that on Wednesday he learned from police that the driver had a suspended license.

"We were unaware of the change in status of the driver's license until the police told us after the accident. When we hired him 2010, he had a valid Massachusetts driver's license," said Lamb.

Lamb said that the driver never had any issues while driving for LynnWay the past seven years.

"If a driver loses the ability to drive in Massachusetts for any reason, we would expect them to inform us and we would not allow them to drive on our property," he said.

Before Lamb released the statement Friday afternoon, several police officers who responded to the crash Wednesday spoke more on what happened.

"What I heard was an explosion, that's what thought until I walked out the building and I saw a huge hole in the building with a car through it, and there were bodies on the ground," said Officer Michelle Gavlin, who was working detail at the auto auction.

There were several hundred people at the LynnWay Auto Auction Wednesday and when the Jeep accelerated and then crashed, Galvin described chaos.

"We had people running screaming for help, I was trying to get the transmission through, I wasn't even sure if they could hear what I was saying, there were so many people," she said.

She and the other officers said one of the biggest challenges was all of the bystanders filming the injured and getting in the way of the triage. In much of the video sent to Boston 25 News on the day of the crash, the was a large crowd of people surrounding the injured, holding their phones up filming.

The investigation into what caused the Jeep to accelerate and crash continues.