• Hamilton fatal crash victim's mom wants to get road safety message out

    A mother mourns 'terrific, terrific kid'
  • Eileen Miller of Scranton wants to channel the grief of losing her son in a Monroe County car crash into helping improve safety on the roads so that no more parents lose their children.
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  • Eileen Miller of Scranton wants to channel the grief of losing her son in a Monroe County car crash into helping improve safety on the roads so that other parents are spared such losses.
    Paul Miller Jr. was 21, a Scranton High School graduate and East Stroudsburg University senior majoring in sociology with a focus in criminal justice, when he was killed in a three-vehicle crash July 5 on Route 33 in Hamilton Township.
    Miller was driving north when a southbound tractor-trailer crossed over the median and hit Miller's car head-on. A northbound van then hit the tractor-trailer. State police are still investigating the crash.
    Eileen Miller, who contacted the Pocono Record following the launch of its driver safety campaign, recently shared her thoughts, as told to Pocono Record reporter Andrew Scott:
    I remember the last time I saw Paul. It was Sunday, the Fourth of July, and he was on his way to a party. He gave me a hug and a kiss like he always did when he was leaving to go somewhere.
    I said, "OK, bye, honey, I love you."
    Whenever Paul went anywhere, he always told me where he was going and called me when he got there. If he was leaving from there to go someplace else, he'd call and let me know that, too, and then call me to let me know when he was coming back home.
    But he didn't call me when he got to the party. It was unusual, but I didn't really think anything of it at the time. I went to bed that night, woke up Monday morning and didn't see his car in the driveway. I assumed he came back home after I went to bed and then left for work before I woke up. He was working at Gerrity's supermarket in Scranton at the time.
    Later that day is when the two state troopers came to my door.
    When I saw them, my mind flashed back to the time Paul was about 16 or so. He was out way later than usual one night, and I didn't know where he was. I started crying because I was so scared and worried.
    When he finally came home, I asked him, "Paul, where were you?" He asked me, "Mom, why are you crying?"
    I told him, "Because I didn't know where you were or what happened to you. You have to call me and let me know where you are, always."
    He said, "OK, mom, I promise." And from then on, he always called me to let me know where he was.
    I remember telling him that night, "I don't ever want police coming to my door."
    And guess who it was showing up at my door that day?
    When I saw the troopers, the first thing out of my mouth was, "It's my son, isn't it?"
    They asked me if I was Paul's mother, and I said yes. I asked them what happened.
    They said, "He was in an accident down in Saylorsburg. He didn't make it."
    I just collapsed down on my knees. I kept saying over and over again, "Not Paul, not Paul."
    It's still hard to wrap my brain around the fact that he's gone. You just never imagine your child is going to die before you are. Your parents or someone else, maybe, but never your child.
    Paul was just such a terrific, terrific kid. He was always positive and talking about the future, never negative. He was a role model. He touched and inspired so many people.
    I didn't even know how many he touched until I started getting letters and cards from his friends. I'm still getting letters from people I didn't even know he knew.
    I remember one time Paul and I went shopping. On our way into the store, we passed a homeless man. He and Paul said hi to each other. I asked Paul, "Who's that and how do you know him?" He just laughed and said, "Mom, you don't need to know everything."
    Well, when Paul wasn't looking, I went back out to where we'd seen the homeless man. I spotted him, went over, introduced myself and asked him how he knew Paul. And that's when he told me how Paul on his work breaks used to buy him lunch and eat lunch with him. That's the type of person Paul was.
    He had some of the younger students at ESU looking up to him.
    He was always on the side of the underdogs, the ones society doesn't expect a lot from. That's why he wanted to work with kids who were on the wrong path in life. He'd been planning to get a job with the Lackawanna County Juvenile Probation Department and seeing if they would pay for graduate school.
    He worked so hard in college to get his bachelor's. He would've gotten it this December. I made sure the school gave it to me after he died. It's the most important thing of his I have. He wanted to use it to help others. Too bad he never got the chance to do that.
    One of the things keeping me going at this point is a desire to see that Paul didn't die for nothing. I'm trying to see what I can do to get the word out to the public that drivers need to be more careful on the roads, so that nobody else has to lose a loved one.
    That's why I contacted the Pocono Record when I saw the "Drive To Keep You Alive" campaign. I want to reach out to the police, (the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation), elected officials, anyone who might be able to help get the message out.
    I want to talk to somebody about putting up billboards with pictures of my son's car after the accident and messages about keeping your eyes on the road, not using cell phones and not getting distracted. But I don't want the billboards themselves to be distracting.
    My husband and daughter are very supportive in what I'm trying to do because Paul's death has just devastated our family. I'm not sure what the most effective thing for me to do would be, but I know I have to do something. Whether it's on my own or with a group of other concerned people, I have to do something.
    I just don't want another parent to ever know what it feels like to lose a child.
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