The driver, who in March 2025 plowed into a group of workers repairing a guardrail along the interstate in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and fled the collision as three of them died, has pleaded guilty.

Bilal Griffith, who turns 31 today, admitted guilt to three counts of manslaughter while operating under the influence at a hearing before Judge David Hodge Tuesday. He also admitted to three counts of leaving the scene of death.

While Hodge said he would hand down the sentence at a hearing on Nov. 20, the judge said he intended to impose 15 to 17 years for each of the manslaughter charges and eight to 10 years for each count of leaving the scene, to be served concurrently.

Judge cites impact statements

Hodge said while he was considering the sentence in this case, the victims’ impact statements were invaluable, giving him as sense for how the collision affected the three families of the workers, he said.

A crew of five workers with Premier Fence in Canton, Massachusetts, had set up cones, erected signs, and established a work zone on Exit 10A, along the northbound side of Interstate 91. They were working an overnight shift to repair a guardrail.

The three workers killed included Raul Bohorquez from Brockton. He was 57.
Ryan Almeida, of Brockton, had kissed his wife of 29 years, Melissa Almeida, goodbye around 5:21 p.m. before he headed to work, according to the victim impact statement she read before the court. He was 48.

Melissa Almeida described her husband as the foreman “who always put the safety of his crew first.”

Handylyara Costa, wife of Igor Costa, of Marlborough, said their youngest daughter had learned to say “Daddy” earlier that day. Speaking through a Portuguese interpreter, Costa said she was forced to tell a child with autism that dad wasn’t coming home. Igor Costa was 26.

At 12:46 a.m. on March 27, 2025, Griffith drove his 2021 Jeep Cherokee around the northbound bend of Interstate 91 after he had been drinking with a co-worker in the North End of Springfield, Assistant District Attorney Peter Gallucci recounted for the court.

Doing 75 in a 35

A second before the collision, Griffith’s car was traveling at a speed of 75 mph, according to Gallucci. The speed limit on the exit ramp was 35. He hit the guardrail and three workers who were on the left side of it.

The force of the collision flipped the car, and its airbags deployed.
As Gallucci recounted the facts of the accident, family members of the workers clutched tissues and sobbed.

Griffith fled the scene on foot wearing an orange hoodie, Gallucci said, leaving his phone behind.He showed up at a hotel about a block away and asked to use its phone, Gallucci said. He called a friend.

His flight prompted a manhunt involving dozens of officers, police dogs and the State Police Air Wing, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

About five hours after the crash, officers saw a man wearing an orange hoodie and no shoes. He fled on foot.

Police eventually found Griffith hiding behind some construction materials. When he tried to run, officers tackled him and noticed the smell of alcohol, according to Gallucci.

Hours after the collision, a breathalyzer recorded his blood-alcohol content of 0.103.

Phone: "Where are You?" ..."Drunk."

When officers partially downloaded the contents of his phone, they saw he sent two text messages that night, Gallucci said. “Where are you,” read the first. “Drunk,” said the second.

Gallucci said the government intended to drop its prosecution of the seventh charge accusing Griffith of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Gallucci described Griffith’s actions as selfish. While the workers were dying on the side of a hill beside a highway, he was jumping fences and running through parking lots.

While the workers’ families were getting knocks on their doors, Griffith was giving law enforcement a false name, Gallucci said. As a result of the collision, 10 children are fatherless.

In 2024, the number of workers killed at road construction sites totaled 122, according to the latest available information from the National Workzone Safety Information Clearinghouse. Almost half those fatalities, 47.5%, were caused by a vehicle striking workers who were on foot.

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Griffith, born in Washington, D.C., told Hodge he had a full-time job working with older adults and children with autism. He had a 9th-grade education and was working on obtaining his GED while in jail.

Griffith’s attorney, Joe Smith, III, said his client has immense contrition. “He wanted to accept responsibility as soon as possible,” Smith said, to help give the families of the workers “some sort of closure in a legal sense.”

Almeida said she had received a letter from Griffith that said he was sorry for what happened and he was praying for her family. She said she was troubled, however, that he described the fatal collision as an accident.

“The hardest part is that this tragedy was 100% preventable,” Almeida said, saying it was Griffith’s choice to get behind the wheel. “My husband paid for that choice with his life.”
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