An overloaded semi-trailer backed into a Laramie County Sheriff’s Office patrol car during a traffic stop that led to the arrest of an undocumented Nicaraguan driver and the issuance of 23 citations.
The driver and a Mexican national, who was the passenger, are in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the traffic stop, which occurred on Monday morning.
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak said the truck was pulled over in Burns, Wyoming, on County Road 213 at 5:49 a.m.
Kozak said the truck was using a grain hopper trailer to haul sand for oil field fracking operations when a sheriff’s deputy pulled it over.
“It had bald tires, it had three flat tires, it had a taillight that was out and it appeared to be severely overweight. So, he stopped the vehicle,” Kozak said. “The deputy got out of his patrol car and was approaching the driver when the truck began to roll backwards and hit the front of our patrol truck (causing) so much damage that it is out of service.”
Kozak said the growing number of illegal drivers and trucks on the road made him decide to post a Facebook video about the incident.
“What’s happening the last few years, I’m amazed and I’m scared to be out driving on the roads,” he said.
No License
Kozak said the driver of the truck did not have a CDL license and was illegally in the country. The truck’s brakes failed causing it to roll into the patrol vehicle.
When the deputy tried to tell the driver that his truck had just rolled into his patrol vehicle, Kozak said, he learned that neither the driver nor the passenger could speak English.
The Trump administration has emphasized the enforcement of a federal policy that requires truck drivers to meet English proficiency standards so that they are able to read and comply with traffic signs and rules and converse with authorities.
After being elected sheriff in 2022, Kozak said he had “numerous complaints” from county residents about trucks trying to circumvent state highways and ports of entry to avoid scales.
“I have three full-time deputies that focus on traffic safety and one of their jobs is also commercial motor vehicle enforcement on the county roads,” he said. “They actually have scales in their trucks and can weigh trucks on the spot.”
20,000 Pounds Overweight
When the deputy weighed the tractor and hopper trailer filled with sand on Monday, he found it came in at just under 100,000 pounds, 20,000 pounds over the weight limit for the road.
The deputy called in the Wyoming Highway Patrol for a full inspection of the vehicle, and the officer found 23 “out-of-service violations.”
The company name on the side door of the truck shown in Kozak’s video states that the truck is operated by Vega Transportation. A search of the U.S. Department of Transportation website for the U.S. Department of Transportation number on the truck’s door lists the company as one out of Akron, Colorado.
A call to the phone number on the truck door that was also listed with the U.S. Department of Transportation was answered by a man, who initially listened to questions about the Burns incident.
“It’s not right,” he said about the incident. Then he denied that the phone number was associated with Vega Transportation LLC and hung up the phone.
The U.S. DOT website shows Vega Transportation LLC’s status is active but that it is “not authorized” for interstate or for-hire operations.
Kozak confirmed that fact and also said it is hard to determine “who actually was operating this vehicle because the owner is leasing it to another company.”
Owner Tried To Drive Truck Away
Kozak said he met the owner of the truck at the impound site where a tow truck driver had hauled it, and the owner said the person driving the truck was not authorized to be driving it. The sheriff had a conversation with the owner about all the violations on the truck.
The owner of the truck told the sheriff he was from Evans, Colorado. Kozak planned to forward his information to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Then the owner of the truck tried to drive the truck out of the impound lot with all its issues unaddressed.
“The owner of the truck also does not have a CDL, and he was going to remove the truck from the site,” Kozak said.
The sheriff stopped him and told him it wasn’t going anywhere until the violations were addressed.
Kozak said his department’s report on the incident will be sent to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which will “most likely take action against the owner of the company.”
He said his department will continue to look for truckers and companies that are giving other “hard working truck drivers” who follow the laws a bad reputation. He also said taking the truck off the road may have prevented a tragedy due to all the safety violations involved.
Most of the illegal truck operations run in the early morning and late at night, and his department’s deputies are trying to be vigilant and out during those times on country roads.
In his Facebook video and in conversation with Cowboy State Daily, the sheriff said the issue with illegal companies and semi drivers continues to grow and gives honest truckers who have obtained their CDLs and operate according to the law a bad name.
“Hopefully, someday this situation turns around from where it is right now,” Kozak said. "Because it’s a sad situation and I just feel sorry for truck drivers that are trying to do it right and compete against companies like this.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
