TOLLESON, AZ — A woman has died after being hit by a commercial dump truck on October 10.
According to Tolleson police, 75-year-old Maria Miramontes was walking with a three-year-old child near 93rd Avenue and Baden Street when the incident occurred.
The dump truck was at a stop sign intersection and then proceeded through while Miramontes and the child were crossing the street, police said.
Officials transported Miramontes to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police say she died at the hospital Wednesday morning. The child was not injured.
"I know the lady. I used to take my grandkids to school, and she'd be outside watering the grass while playing with her great-grandkids,” said Joan Sanders.
Sanders lived next to Miramontes for two years.
"She spoke every morning. We just had good conversation. I am just really devastated because she was just a really good person,” added Sanders.
Miramontes' neighbor says she is hurting for the woman's family.
"This is crazy. It really is. It is just bad. I feel so bad for them,” added Sanders.
Sanders admits the two shared only small talk.
"She would laugh and talk with my husband. They got along. He is fluent in speaking Spanish. She understood him and he understood her. It was kind of funny,” added Sanders.
But, not funny Sanders says, are the facts that drivers speed through this west valley neighborhood all the time and this happened so close to her neighbor's front door.
"That's right there by the mailboxes. It's just a hop, skip and jump. It could have been anybody. It was her and that is what hurts me the most,” added Sanders.
Police are investigating impairment as a possible factor in this accident.
"A charging decision will be made when the results of the driver’s toxicology is obtained from the crime lab and at the completion of the investigation," Tolleson police said Wednesday.
