MassDOT worker hit by drunken driver in stolen car, police say

REVERE, Mass. — Massachusetts State Police say a man in a stolen Uber struck a MassDOT worker shortly after midnight.

The driver of a pickup truck with arrow board was getting out of the car at the scene of a crash on Route 1 near the Sargent Street exit when a car hit him, state police said.

Troopers at the scene arrested Matthew Ricco Tyre, 29, for driving a stolen car and operating under the influence. Police say Tyre had carjacked an Uber driver in East Boston and drove off in the 2017 Honda Civic.

Prosecutors say Tyre told the Uber driver his dad is a former police officer so he could do what he wanted.

"And then began drinking from a bottle of whiskey he brought in with him," prosecutors said. "The defendant offered the Uber driver a drink and when the driver refused, he began splashing the whiskey on the Uber driver."

When the driver pulled over, police say Tyre threw the bottle of whiskey at him and hit him. That's when they say Tyre stole the vehicle and took off up Route 1 in Revere before slamming into the back of the MassDOT truck.

State police stopped Tyre and say he again began yelling that his father was a retired Chelsea Police Lt.

Boston 25 News spoke with Tyre's father, Rico Tyre, who told us "He just made a mistake and fortunately nobody got killed."

The 52-year-old MassDOT worker was taken to the hospital and has been treated and released.

Tyre was ordered held on $20,000 bail.

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