A story that his detractors (enemies) have been pushing for years on the internet was finally debunked today in the Lowell Sun Column.

Instead of the “he crashed into a parked car and ran,” the story and facts show that none of that was true. There was an accident with no injuries, but it was handled professionally and reported openly to the Police and School administration.

In speaking with both Volpe and Murphy myself, I know that neither of them have been digging this up or supporting the spreading of this story.

7-year-old crash a factor in Dracut?

The Lowell Sun
DRACUT TOWN elections are one week from tomorrow so, of course, innuendo and accusations are as common as the town’s crazy network of political websites, chat-rooms and blogs.

On the receiving end of much of the speculation this year is Tim Woods, a former School Committee member and Dracut High School athletic director who is looking to rejoin the committee by criticizing just about everything the current committee is doing.

Woods’ critics say neither he nor the School Department has been fully open about what happened in the early-afternoon hours of Dec. 5, 2008, at Long Meadow Golf Club in Lowell.

If you ask the anonymous denizens of the Internet and newspaper tip lines, Woods, who was the district’s athletic director at the time, crashed into a parked car while driving a school van and fled the scene, and the incident was then covered up.

If you ask the Lowell Police Department and Dracut public schools, the story is a little less salacious. According to the crash report from the incident, Woods was leaving the golf course about 1 p.m., when he sideswiped the front left bumper of a parked car.

In an interview, he said he was at Long Meadow with the athletic directors of other area schools, who met there on a weekly basis.

Woods got out of the school van and exchanged registration information with the driver of the parked car, according to the police report. He then left to go pick up supplies for the high-school Super Bowl game, Woods said.

A few minutes later, the School Department got a call from the daughter of the owner of the car Woods struck.

She wanted to get the department’s insurance information, according to a School Department memo.Fifteen minutes after that, the Lowell Police Department called the School Department and said Woods needed to promptly return to the parking lot to answer some questions or he would be charged with leaving the scene of the accident.

Woods said he did return and answered the officers’ questions, which had to do with insurance. He was never arrested or charged with any wrongdoing.

The cost to repair the van was estimated at about $1,000, according to insurance documents.

Why is this coming up now?

“It’s obvious that my opponents want to talk about issues of anything other than the campaign,” Woods said.

Neither Allison Volpe nor incumbent Betsy Murphy, the two people Woods is running against, chose to make an issue of the 2008 incident when asked about it.

But you don’t have to go far online to find those who will.