Crash
While 3.5 million Massachusetts motorists have not had any accidents since 2002, a mere 200 drivers have been involved in five or more crashes during that same time. In Cambridge, a recycling truck bearing the license plate J30984 has accounted for 11 accidents in that period — five of them by an operator named Mario Sanchez. This is the story of one of the state's most accident-prone drivers.
The victim was a shapely pear tree that provided a little green relief for residents on narrow Pine Street, outside Central Square.
A worker accidentally ran it over with the company truck back in 2005.
That same employee, while steering a hulking F.W. Russell & Sons recycling vehicle through the streets of Cambridge in 2004 and 2005, also was involved in crashes with a Dodge pickup on Walden Street, a 2002 Subaru on Broadway, a '98
Even though a Cambridge official says at least three of the accidents were not his fault, by racking up five between January '04 and November '05, operator Mario Sanchez, 29, had, in addition, bulldozed himself into the company of some of the most accident-prone drivers in the state.
And then the saga of Sanchez the erratic motorist took a sharp turn, into a darker place.
In the kind of disclosure that often comes to light only after a spectacular vehicular crack-up, pieced-together public records reveal that even as Sanchez was busy emptying recycling containers in Cambridge, he was under a 2003 federal indictment, charged with being part of a conspiracy to import and distribute heroin to the Boston area.
Sanchez pleaded guilty to the heroin charges in December 2006, and was later sentenced to time behind bars already served - it's unclear how long - and three years of supervised release, according to court documents.
Since 2005, Cambridge city councilors have voiced concern about F.W. Russell's performance, including the damage done by its recycling trucks as they scour the city. In addition to scooping up bottles and cans, one Russell truck accumulated 11 crash reports there from January 2002 through June of last year, according to Registry of Motor Vehicles records.
In July 2005, Russell signed a five-year contract with the city for about $1.5 million annually, according to the Department of Public Works. This past December, city councilors asked officials not to re-up with Russell until the firm details how it will cover any future harm to property.
Yet the fact that Sanchez was driving in Cambridge while facing federal drug charges flew under the city's radar.
Though court records indicate the company was aware of Sanchez's federal case during the time he worked there, Lisa Peterson, commissioner of the Cambridge DPW, said she was not. "We hold the contractor responsible for their employees," she said.
Her department does not require that Russell conduct criminal background checks on its employees, she said, only that they have proper driver's licenses and such - which Sanchez did, despite his history of roadway wrecks. Right now, she said, convicted felons are not precluded from working for Russell in Cambridge, though she added that the city has been looking at refining its criminal-history policies.
"People accused and convicted of crimes - we need to look at each case on an individual basis and make a decision on the safety of our community and our workforce," Peterson said. "I can't say we expect all contractors to have totally pristine records, but we do need to make sure we're protecting the public safety."
Peterson said that Sanchez is not currently driving for Russell in Cambridge; he stopped doing so late last year, she said, though it's unclear why or whether he's still working for the company elsewhere.
Russell and its representatives did not return 10 phone messages seeking comment on Sanchez and the company's overall policies.
Neither Sanchez nor his lawyer would comment, either.
Although the distance may seem great between being a hellion on wheels and helping to plot a heroin deal, criminologists say it's no accident that careless drivers engage in other reckless acts.
They say those who grew up with poor parenting or other issues may have too little self-control and can act out with brash driving and other risky behaviors - even criminal activities, especially if they are poor and lack other outlets. "They don't have as much to lose," said Ineke Haen Marshall, a professor at Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice and in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
In court papers, Sanchez's lawyers say he veered briefly into a life of crime when he was desperate after losing a job at Logan Airport, where they say he worked as a truck driver and customer service rep before being laid off in 2001, briefly rehired the next year, and again let go.
Federal officials declined to discuss the drug case, saying it is ongoing. But in court and other documents, they described the operation as a major one, involving more than 20 participants, that used runners to import Colombian heroin from Ecuador to Boston.
Sanchez and a man identified as his half-brother, Mark Sanchez Clemente, were to play the role of recruiting couriers in Puerto Rico, said one federal agent. It was a minor role, Sanchez's lawyers contend.
But before that could happen, Sanchez got cold feet, his lawyers say. He made a U-turn and withdrew completely from the enterprise, they say.
After Sanchez, Clemente, and others pleaded guilty, the participants took part in more finger-pointing than after a fender-bender at a four-way intersection, records show.
In documents, Clemente said it was Sanchez who brought him into the project.
Meanwhile, Sanchez linked his own enlistment to a Logan co-worker, and said his predicament was influenced by a harsh childhood in Puerto Rico that included being beaten for bringing home a grade of B instead of an A, and by a tough transition to early life in the United States because he didn't speak English.
"Remorse has overwhelmed him," his lawyers wrote, "and, now that he is a devoted father, has left him deeply ashamed."
Before sentencing, family members and others came forward to vouch for Sanchez, including a Russell official who wrote: "Although I can see that the case has weighed heavily on him, he has always remained committed to his job and to supporting his family."
Outside of the drug arrest, records show that Sanchez had other brushes with the law.
After an incident outside their Revere home in 2005, his wife obtained a restraining order against Sanchez, and assault and battery charges were filed against him; the couple later reconciled and she had the restraining order vacated, records show, and the charges were dropped.
In 2006, he was arrested by Randolph police and charged with drunken driving, but he maintained someone else was behind the wheel of the car, and he was acquitted.
And between 2001 and 2005, Sanchez incurred hundreds of dollars in fines for off-the-job driving infractions ranging from operating without a license in his possession to speeding.
As for his record while driving the recycling truck, Sanchez finds himself in select company.
He was one of only 200 drivers out of 4.7 million statewide involved in five or more accidents, whether they were at fault or not, between January 2002 and last June, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
By contrast, 3.5 million Massachusetts drivers had no crashes at all during that same time.
As a whole, the cost of property repairs and medical bills for accidents caused by those in two or more crashes statewide was more than $100 million in 2006, according to insurance industry data, with good drivers picking up part of the price tag.
Peterson, the DPW chief, says that she is not thrilled with five accidents by one driver, but points out that Sanchez's last one occurred late in 2005. Further, she says, he wasn't at fault in the majority of the incidents. (If you are at fault in five accidents within a three-year period, the Registry says, you must complete a driver-retraining program or lose your license.)
She said city officials would have intervened if they felt it were necessary, as they had in asking that a different Russell driver not work in Cambridge after he ignored instructions not to back his truck near a school.
"We take driver safety very seriously," Peterson said.
She said Russell ended up replacing the tree that Sanchez uprooted, but that it had to be planted on nearby Elm Street because the sidewalks on Pine are too narrow to both accommodate new timber and allow wheelchairs and strollers enough room to pass.
Now, all that's left of the graceful pear tree that gave Pine Street residents a bit of natural beauty on a block of metal street signs is an empty patch.
Globe staff reporter Matt Carroll contributed to this report.
Ric Kahn can be reached at rkahn@globe.com.
