Director of Massachusetts Highway Safety Department has had SEVEN car accidents and nine tickets

Car trouble: Sheila Burgess, 48, has had 34 notations on her driving record since 1982

The head of the Massachusetts Highway Safety department needs to start taking her own advice as it was revealed today that she has had seven car accidents and nine traffic tickets.

The Boston Globe reports that Sheila Burgess has been on leave from her administrative job since August following the most serious of her car accidents as it left her with an unspecified head injury.

The credentials of Ms Burgess, 48, are now being called into question as she apparently was recommended for the safety job after years of political consulting with no actual experience in highway work.

A spokesman for Democratic governor Deval Patrick said that part of the reason why Burgess was hired is because she was recommended by Representative James McGovern, who is just one of her former bosses that has political connections.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she has also worked for Senator John Kerry for about four years, with even longer jobs for Congressman John Joseph Moakley and former state treasurer Shannon O'Brien.

Those connections helped her secure her $87,000-per-year government job even though she had no experience in the field of highway safety.

Her personal experience with traffic violations, however, are extensive.

The paper reports that she has had 34 different entries on her driving record since 1982.

Political pals: Burgess has previously worked for Rep. Joe Moakley (left) and Senator John Kerry (right)

Those charges vary, and include four speeding violations and two instances where she refused to stop for a police officer. There are single counts of times when she was cited for not having her license or registration in her possession, not staying in her lane, and not wearing a seat belt.

That final charge is more than a bit ironic, as one of her major campaigns through work has been the need for drivers to wear their seatbelts, 'every trip, every time' as she wrote in a mass email.



The most recent of her seven car accidents took place on August 24, when she drove a state-owned blue Ford Taurus off the side of a road in Blue Hills Reservation, crashing into rocks.

'I was in an accident and have a head injury,' she said during an interview this week.

She did not go on any further about the crash itself deflecting questions to the public safety agency.