The Massachusetts trucker charged with killing seven bikers last week in New Hampshire had flipped an 18-wheeler two weeks earlier in Texas, according to police.

The same Texas department also reported finding a crack pipe in Volodymyr Zhukovskyy’s pocket a few months earlier when he was “talking to himself and acting strange” at Denny’s.

But when Zhukovskyy returned home after the 18-wheeler crash, Westfield Transport — a trucking company one expert said has a “pretty bad” track record with drivers — still let him behind the wheel.

This May 11, 2019 booking photo released by the East Windsor Police Department shows Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, after he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol in East Windsor, Conn. Zhukovskyy is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, June 25, 2019 in Lancaster, N.H., on seven counts of negligent homicide after the pickup he was driving collided with a group of motorcycles, killing seven on a two-lane highway in Randolph, N.H. on Friday night. (East Windsor Police Department via AP)

SPRINGFIELD, MA - JUNE 24: Volodymyr Zhukovskyy appears in court in Springfield, Massachusetts on June 24, 2019. (Staff Photo By Christopher Evans/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

Volodymyr Zhukovskyy appears in court in Springfield, Massachusetts on June 24, 2019. (Staff Photo By Christopher Evans/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)



SPRINGFIELD, MA - JUNE 24: Volodymyr Zhukovskyy appears in court in Springfield, Massachusetts on June 24, 2019. (Staff Photo By Christopher Evans/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

SPRINGFIELD, MA - JUNE 24: Volodymyr Zhukovskyy appears in court in Springfield, Massachusetts on June 24, 2019. (Staff Photo By Christopher Evans/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

Victims of fatal motorcycle accident in Randolph, NH Photos courtesy New Hampshire District Attorney



Lakeville MA, June 23: The VFW Hall in Bridgewater with it's flag at half staff for Edward and Joanne Corr, both 58, and the other five victims that were killed in the motorcycle accident Friday in Randolph NH, Sunday, June 23, 2019, in Lakeville. (Jim Michaud / MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

RANDOLPH, NH - JUNE 22: A flag is planted at the scene of a crash killing seven people and injuring three others on Route 2, JUNE 22, 2019 in RANDOLPH, New Hampshire. (Staff Photo By Chris Christo/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

RANDOLPH, NH - JUNE 22: Motorcycle club members search for personal effects at the scene of a crash killing seven people and injuring three others on Route 2, JUNE 22, 2019 in RANDOLPH, New Hampshire. (Staff Photo By Chris Christo/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)



RANDOLPH, NH - JUNE 22: Motorcycle club members gather at the Mount Jefferson View Motel, near the scene of a crash killing seven people and injuring three others on Route 2, JUNE 22, 2019 in RANDOLPH, New Hampshire. (Staff Photo By Chris Christo/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

RANDOLPH, NH - JUNE 22: Andy Best (L) comforts David McCarthy at the scene of a crash killing seven people and injuring three others on Route 2, JUNE 22, 2019 in RANDOLPH, New Hampshire. (Staff Photo By Chris Christo/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)





The 23-year-old truck driver charged with seven counts of negligent homicide after hitting a group of bikers with his truck waived his arraignment in New Hampshire on Tuesday, avoiding an appearance before dozens of people who had shown up to support the motorcyclists. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has filed a detainer on Zhukovskyy. That means the West Springfield man, who had just secured a green card, faces being deported back to his native Ukraine if and when he’s released. Deportation proceedings usually come after a suspect has served time on any state charges.

Zhukovskyy was driving his 2016 Dodge 2500 pickup truck and attached trailer erratically, cops say, westbound Friday evening on Route 2 when he crossed a double-yellow center line and collided with members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club in the eastbound lane.

A court filing signed by Coos County Attorney John McCormick asks for Zhukovskyy to be placed in preventative detention because of his criminal and dangerous driving history.

That includes an OUI arrest on May 11 in Connecticut. He failed a sobriety test after someone called the cops to tell them that someone was revving a truck engine and druggedly jumping around outside of a Walmart, according to the police report from the incident. The officers who showed up arrested Zhukovskyy and were so alarmed by his “suicidal comments and extreme behavior” that they turned him over to medics and sent him to the hospital.

Then on June 3, Zhukovskyy flipped an 18-wheeler while driving 20 miles east of Houston, Texas, according to Baytown Lt. Steve Dorris.

“He said a car had cut him off on the Interstate, so he swerved and missed the car,” Dorris said Tuesday, noting that Zhukovsky wasn’t cited.

In that same Texas town, cops arrested him four months earlier on Feb. 11, when at 2 a.m. at the local Denny’s, Zhukovskyy was sitting at the counter “talking to himself and acting strange,” Dorris said.

Police searched him and found a crack pipe, charging him with possession of drug paraphernalia.

His employer, Westfield Transport — where no one was picking up the phone on Tuesday — has a history of driver troubles, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which has data that shows its drivers get written up and taken out of service nearly four times as often as the national average — 20.8% versus 5.5%.

In more than one out of every five inspections, authorities found the company’s drivers had done something serious enough that they were yanked off the road, trucking industry expert Scott Tucker told the Herald. According to the feds, that’s ranged from everything from not having an effective parking brake system but instead having narcotics twice in four days.

“That’s pretty bad,” Tucker told the Herald of the out-of-service rate. “It’s a demonstration of inadequate management control.”

“I cannot believe he (Zhukovskyy) was just busted last month and still out driving around,” said Leigh Nichols, whose close friend Aaron Perry, 45, died in last week’s crash. “Whoever screwed up, that blood is on their hands as well. The company should have pulled his driving record and known he got busted.”

Manny Ribeiro, the new president of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club after 59-year-old president Albert Mazza died in the crash, said the company “clearly didn’t do their due diligence.”

“There’s no reason why he should have been driving,” Ribeiro said.