An NKY college soccer star and entrepreneur was hit by a semi. His family wants justice

By 25, Zackery Leffler had been a soccer standout, peer tutor and company founder with a fiancé and a wide circle of friends.

When he died in December – hit and killed by a semi-tractor trailer near Youngstown – 3,000 people attended his funeral and dozens contributed $70,000 to a fund to support youth soccer, his family said.

Now, the parents of the Northern Kentucky University graduate want an Ohio law to require truck drivers who cause deaths to be tested for impairment. They also want a jury trial for a wrongful death lawsuit against the driver who hit him and the driver's employer.

"A bad trucking company hired a back truck driver with a bad driving history," the family's attorney, Shean Williams, said in announcing the legal efforts, "and he killed a great man."

Driver sentenced to house arrest

The family spoke out just two days after RFS Group Inc. driver David Pluidze earned a sentence of 30 days on house arrest and $750 fine in the case. He had pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor vehicular homicide charge. In court, Pluidze said he had a medical condition that caused him to lose consciousness behind the wheel.

"The judge didn't suspend his license," Leffler's mother, Shannon Ponder, said at a Wednesday press conference in Cincinnati. "I don't understand how you don't suspend someone's license when they just told you that they've caused a fatality because they have a medical condition."

According to the family's lawsuit, Pluidze, a resident of New Jersey , was driving his truck east on Interstate 80 near Youngstown on Dec. 5 when he drove off the left side of the road, through a median barrier and into Leffler's Ram 1500 pickup heading west on I-80.

Leffler died because Pluidze was "careless and negligent," driving too fast and failing to control his truck, according to the lawsuit. The family filed the suit in June in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, where RFS Group Inc., then Pluidze's employer, maintains its headquarters in West Chicago.

RFS did not return a call seeking comment. Pluidze, who the Lefflers said is now driving for a different employer, could not be located for comment.

Family wants drivers tested

As they await trial, the Leffler family will seek a backer for an Ohio law that would require drivers of tractor-trailers involved in fatal accidents to be tested for drugs and alcohol. Pluidze was not tested at the scene, the family said.

They also want such accidents to be investigated by the Ohio Department of Transportation rather than local agencies, saying state agents would have greater knowledge of state and federal laws that apply to truck drivers.

Leffler's family believes Pluidze should have faced felony charges and earned jail time.

"If somebody kills somebody and they're driving a truck, should they not have responsibility?" asked Leffler's father, Joe Leffler. "This guy killed a kid with such a bright future (and) he gets 30 days at his home."

The younger Leffler, who lived in Burlington, Kentucky, attended Thomas More College and then transferred to NKU. As a member of both schools' soccer teams, he racked up 39 goals and 43 assists, according to his obituary. He graduated from NKU in 2021 with majors in economics and statistics.

In December 2020, he co-founded an analytics firm called Tactyx. Last June, he began selling building materials for SouthernCarlson. His mother resides in Covington, Ky., and his father in Athens, Georgia.

Leffler's intended wife, Lauren Mulcahy, said her pain has not diminished since December. The couple knew each other from grade school, began dating at 17 as Walton Verona High School students and planned a May 2025 wedding.

"Every moment has felt like an injustice," Mulcahy said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: An NKY college soccer star and entrepreneur was hit by a semi. His family wants justice