Wife of truck driver who died in accident with deported driver calls for “more responsibility for truck drivers”

The wife of an off-duty truck driver who was killed in an accident with a previously deported driver appeared in court on Tuesday to demand “more responsibility for truck drivers.”

Ignacio Criz-Mendoza made his first court appearance on Tuesday, June 18, after losing his load of metal pipes in a fatal accident that left 64-year-old Scott Miller dead.

According to Denver 7, Miller was on his way home from the grocery store and less than six miles from his home when he died in the accident. Miller was also a truck driver who owned his own water hauling business and often hauled water through the mountains.

“We had just spoken. I had probably only been on the phone with him for 10 minutes before he died,” said Miller’s wife, DeAnn Miller. “And then I was stuck in traffic and I thought, ‘Oh my God, another accident.’ And how ironic, I got a detour home and my husband was involved in this accident.”

Miller’s family says he placed great emphasis on truck driving safety and even trained some of the drivers in his own company.

“He was very concerned about the safety of truck drivers who drive their heavy tractor-trailers in the mountains,” said Miller’s daughter Michelle Tusa. “Ever since I was a kid, he always told me to be careful when driving alongside trucks, especially in the mountains, because it takes a tremendous amount of skill to drive such equipment on steep mountain roads, and you just never know who you’re driving alongside.”

“I just want to protect other people on the road because this happens too often. And if his death means anything, it’s that people are more alert and that truck drivers as a profession are more cautious,” Tusa continued.

Cruz-Mendoza had been deported at least 16 times before the accident and did not have a CDL license. The company he was driving for had a history of hiring truck drivers without licenses.

“My husband would be alive today if truck drivers on the road were held more accountable, but that’s not the case,” DeAnn Miller told CBS reporters. “That’s why I’m going to fight for it.”

Cruz-Mendoza is charged with reckless driving causing death and reckless driving causing injury and is being held on $50,000 bail. His court date is set for July 31.