3 year-old squashed to death in crosswalk

3 year-old Anthony Meade was squashed to death in crosswalk at 20th and Camelback Rd, Phoenix on 12/4/2013 ~ 7:30PM. The driver (whose name apparently has not been released and is referred to only as a 26-year-old) was driving a 2009 Toyota Tundra, a large pickup…

All parties were northbound; the driver making a left from 20th Street onto Camelback, and the peds were crossing Camelback at the intersection.

The news stories say only that the driver will be tested for impairment; in other words the Phoenix PD is hinting the driver was not apparently impaired…. And in any event the driver was found to not be impaired and so was never charged with any felony, according to Phoenix PIO (that was in March of 2014 timefram); who would not reveal the driver’s name for some reason and so can’t check with caselookup to see; the description of the collision should have resulted in a 28-672 charge. So as things turn out, I guess that was correct info, the driver was charged w/672 in Phoenix muni case M-0741-4928453 / Phx citation PCP20159000643, but not until Jan 2015, and he plead guilty in May 2015. Not sure what all the delays are about (though, remember there is a two year statute on 672). The driver plead guilty a dui charge in pinetop/lakeside in 2010 CR-20100521 so maybe he was being more closely scrutinized(?). The driver also has/had three civil traffic beefs listed with Maricopa Justice Courts, one each 2007, 2012, and 2014; outcomes aren’t available there, plus some sort of dismissed (photo) Scottsdale ticket 2012, and a dismissed (photo?) ticket in phoenix muni 2014.

This crash reminded me of another stroller/pedestrian death a few year ago driver-cited-in-death-of-baby-in-stroller in Phoenix on 9/14/2009. The victim was a 7-month old was killed instantly as a driver failed to yield as she exited a private driveway in her SUV. The driver was ticketed.

Crash Report

This is FARS case=40782 and ADOT incident=2818037. Phoenix file number 13002154282 (listed as 201302154282 in the database).There are some discrepancies between the crash report and what is in Adot’s database…

So here’s the list in the format of Crash Form Block / Report value / Asdm value (commentary) — Unit #1 (most at fault) is the pickup and Unit #2 is dead child:

1. Unit #1 direction / Northwest / North (i do prefer the latter)
2. Unit #2 Maneuver / Crossing Road / Crossing Road  (sometimes this same action is described as Going Straight Ahead)
3. Unit #1 Violation / Disregarded Traff Sig / Failure to Yield (the latter is correct)
4. Unit #1 Maneuver / Going Straight Ahead / Making Left (the latter is correct)
5. Unit #2 Violation / No Improper / Unknown (The former is correct)

So #1 and #2 are no big deal, just pointing out some consistency issues. However, 3-4-5 have no ready explanation — why were they changed? The image of the crash report have some hand-written notations as late as 7/10/2014. Who changes these, and why?

Also the crash form lists 28-792A and 28-672 as citations. The FARS record doesn’t have anything remarkable: the PBT (preliminary breath test) was apparently negative for alcohol and there was no drug testing listed. The victim, in the stroller, was listed as a PER_TYP of personal conveyance, by the way.

More Generally about Peds and SUVs / Light Trucks

Drivers operating pickups and other so-called “light trucks and vans” which includes SUVs  account for a disproportionately high number of pedestrian fatalities (Lefler 2004, Paulozzi 2005) ; but nobody seems to care. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is charged with traffic safety, the federal gov’t has regulated bumper heights of passenger cars for over 40 years; Light trucks are exempted from, among other things, bumper height regulations and that’s the way the industry likes it because taller vehicles look cool and can drive over things when used off-road; but have an unfortunate tendency to drive over things like pedestrians when used on-road.

Lefler DE, Gabler HC. (2004) The Fatality and Injury Risk of Light Truck Impacts with Pedestrians in the United States. Accid. Anal. Prev., Vol. 36, pp. 295–304.

Paulozzi LJ. (2005) United States Pedestrian Fatality Rates by Vehicle Type. Inj. Prev., Vol. 11, pp. 232–236.

(these studies are linked here under What if your Crash Partner is a Pedestrian? )