Dead end for Lowell Auto School - Lowell Sun

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LOWELL — Some teen student drivers were left stranded after a local driving school suddenly closed its doors in May, according to reports on community social media forums.

Families of prospective drivers reportedly scrambled to transfer their partial classroom and on-road instruction hours to other professional driving schools.

For almost 40 years, 71-year-old Ronald Gallagher owned the family-run business of Lowell Auto School, offering student drivers classroom and behind-the-wheel training.

In early May, however, Gallagher stopped answering parents’ frantic phone calls and emails about their students’ scheduled and paid-for driving sessions. The company website is offline and the company is “no longer in business” according to information from the Better Business Bureau.

In April 2020, Gallagher received a $20,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan, a U.S. Small Business Administration-backed program that helped businesses keep their workforce employed during the COVID-19 crisis. The loan was forgiven the following year, according to information compiled from federal databases.

Gallagher did not answer the door to his business office, located on Central Street, just around the corner from the Registry of Motor Vehicles, and numerous email and voicemail messages left for him also were not returned.

A reader provided The Sun with several screenshots of Facebook posts from local families with teens affected by the driving school’s abrupt closure. One parent’s post expressed anger that the school failed to bring her son to his scheduled driving appointment at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Another family member voiced frustration that their student driver had to transfer to another school further from home. None of the families, however, returned requests for additional comment.

Lowell Auto School, which is incorporated under the name Gallagher’s Auto School in the state’s corporation database, listed Gallagher’s niece, Molly Silva, as an officer and director of the business at the time of the school’s closure. Silva is also the owner of the Lawrence-based Berkeley Auto School. Although Silva did not return numerous calls and emails for comment over the course of last week on her involvement in the now-defunct driving school, her attorney said Silva was no longer connected to her uncle’s business.

In a June 10 email to The Sun, attorney Bryan J. Kerman stated that “Molly Silva is no longer a Director or corporate officer for Gallagher’s Auto School, Inc. Ms. Silva’s involvement as a Director and corporate officer was limited in time to the period from about April 22, 2022 through June 9, 2022. Ms. Silva is not an employee or stockholder of Gallagher’s Auto School. I am informed that Berkeley Auto School, Inc. has no business affiliation of any kind with Gallagher’s Auto School.”

Corporate documents filed with the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Office confirmed the dates Kerman provided. It is unclear why Silva joined and then left the business so quickly, after The Sun had already begun contacting her.

The RMV lists more than 100 certified driving schools in Massachusetts including several in the Chelmsford, Tyngsboro and Wilmington area. The requirements to operate a Driver Instructor Training Course includes posting a performance bond of between $10,000 to $50,000 against which customer claims can be filed.

Fees for driving instruction, which are set by the vendor, can range anywhere from $600 to $900, depending on the level of instruction selected by the student. Companies may require a deposit fee with either pay-in-full or installment payment options.

Here are tools to vet any one of the hundreds of certified auto schools in the state:

Start by reading the RMV’s Driver’s Education Programs information sheet.
Check the company’s Better Business Bureau profile.
Ask to see the company’s Professional Driving School certification and licensures, or call the RMV’s Consumer Assistance Bureau at 857-368-8080.
Visit the location, meet the owners, classroom and driving instructors.
Check online reviews.

Taking these steps doesn’t guarantee that your experience will be problem free. In the event you lose money due to a driving school abruptly closing its doors, and the owner is unresponsive, your options include:

Monica Sim, an instructor with Sim’s Driving School on Middlesex Street, said the school had accepted the transfer of a Lowell Auto School student to their program. But she said, sudden closures “are bad for business, and you hate to see it happen to the students.”

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