Arizona Bike Law Blog

Little drips make a big mess

More externalities of mass motorization.

The Arizona Republic ran this USA Today story under the better-named  headline “Gulf spill can’t rival oil seepage from cities: Over time, tiny drips add major pollution to oceans”.

“Human-caused spills send more than 300 million gallons of oil into North American waters every decade, an amount roughly double the highest estimate of the BP spill”… “the largest human-caused source of oil into the environment is the byproduct of millions of autos and other oil-powered devices.”

Land-based oil spills add up, too

USA Today, 6/30/2010 Read the rest of this entry »

Burning 10,000 barrels a day

In order to mitigate marine damage, some of the oil that is leaking from the blown-out BP / Deepwater Horizon well, around 10,000 barrels a day is being burned into the open air in a completely uncontrolled combustion. [story from AP: BP starts burning oil from leaking ruptured well, June 16, 2010]

BP or whoever can theoretically run around an pick up every tar ball and clean off every pelican, but who is going to clean the air? As is usually the case, nobody does.  So everyone gets dirtier air. It’s just blowin’ in the wind. Just another externality of oil and gas consumption.

Ezra Klein had a good piece on externalities in last week’s Washington Post:

Think gas is to pricey? Think again Read the rest of this entry »

Hold the horn

Horn honkers take note, hold off on blowing that horn, it’s generally illegal.

§28-954.  Horns and warning devices

B. If reasonably necessary to ensure the safe operation of a motor vehicle, the driver shall give an audible warning with the driver’s horn but shall not otherwise use the horn when on a highway.

…

More on Arizona politics and photo-radar

So this is in the wake of the formal announcement a couple of weeks ago that DPS would be terminating the contract for highway photo-radar enforcement.

Photo speed-enforcement may not be gone for good.

Gov. Jan Brewer doesn’t like photo enforcement; she put in her guy to direct DPS, Robert Halliday.

a “top commander” (number 2?), Lt. Col. Jack Hegarty seems to sort of like it. In any event he lobbied for a law (bill number? “The DPS bill passed and was signed into law on May 7″ ) that that give DPS control of any future program. This is probably a good idea, as it at least theoretically removes some of the opportunities for political meddling.

Bill s from the 49th 2nd Regular session relating to photo enforcement:

• SB1018 (Chapter 266): Photo enforcement procedures. apparently this it the bill referred to in the article, but i don’t really see how this gives DPS control(?)
• HB2338 (Chapter 213): the yellow light business.

“When Redflex alerted the media that DPS was canceling the contract, speculation was rampant that Gov. Jan Brewer made the decision to dismantle the controversial system to score political points. But Brewer’s nominee to run DPS, Robert Halliday, insisted the decision was his”

Arizona Supreme Court rules on DUI blood-test issue

Recent ruling in the Phoenix case of Joes Carillo: “The Arizona Supreme Court ruled this morning that, to collect blood from a person suspected of DUI, police must get specific consent from the suspect or get a search warrant…” Read the rest from NewtimesBlog. Read the rest of this entry »

Lawsuit filed: Flagstaff cyclist killed in collision with city truck

NAU student Joshua Pete was killed in a collision with a city-owned truck.

“both traveling westbound on Butler Avenue at the time of the collision, with Pete in the marked bike lane, police said. The investigation so far indicates that the truck and the bicyclist collided at about 11:15 a.m [11/16/2009] as the truck was making a right turn into the driveway. Pete became entangled in the truck’s wheel housing and was dragged some distance before the vehicle came to a stop in the driveway” AZ Daily Sun article.

Prosecutor completed their investigation, and there will be no criminal charges  [azdailysun]

AZ Cyclist Fatality Grid

I am not sure of the final outcome, but from reading the crash report, it sounds as though police concluded that the cyclist attempted to overtake the truck (as opposed to the other way around), and therefore there will be no citations to the truck driver.

Lawsuit filed

A $4M wrongful death lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the family of Joshua Pete. [azdailysun]. The family’s lawyer refers to a supplemental DPS report which contains information they claim makes the truck driver at least partially responsible for the crash “DPS Detective Curt Getting concluded that a ‘contributing factor to the collision would be the wide/late right turn into the plant by the truck driver. The cyclist could have perceived the truck was continuing straight ahead.’ ”

The 5 page DPS referred to is apparently only summarized in Flagstaff PD’s 80 page report.

This is apparently the case number: S-0300-CV-201000619  AMOS H PETE  PLAINTIFF Coconino County Superior

Citation?

There is a citation for “UNSAFE TURN OR NO TURN SIGNAL” floating around: M-0341-TR-2010004034, filed 5/23/2010; I’m not sure if that is in connection with this incident or not? It is odd, however, that something happened (a trial?) on 6/16, and then comments were added on 6/28 — but as of this writing (on 8/2/2010) there is no disposition, it is just blank…. which is because the case got transferred from muni court to Flagstaff justice court, the defendant has plead not guilty, and the case has been continued and no trial date is set as of 8/27/2010. The case number is J-0301-TR-2010005648.

Obtaining Police Reports

As part of my project to monitor the most serious bicycle – vehicle collisions, I will be obtaining the Arizona Crash Report(ACR) for every bicyclist fatality in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Commuter cyclist killed in Tempe

According to item at biketempe.org, and thread at azfixed.com…

Bike commuter Jay Fretz was killed in a a collision at the intersection of Alamenda and McClintock Drive in Tempe at approximately 6:30p Monday 5/17/2010.

The story has not received any media coverage at the time (strange?).  abc15 ran a piece 10 days after the crash that said “Investigators said he was hit by a car as he rode through a crosswalk at McClintock and Alameda drives”.

This tragedy comes just one week after an ASU student was killed in another Tempe collision.

2010 Arizona cyclist fatality grid

The folks from T.B.A.G. have erected a ghost bike to commemorate the spot where Jay was killed.

“But there is more to the story, punctuated with lousy timing and heart-wrenching misfortune…” read more.

….

Not One More Foundation Announces to all Arizona Cycling Teams, Clubs, Community and Friends a special Fundraising Ride to “Link the Lake” for Jay Fretz. Sat Dec 4th… see more on the arizona brumby’s site.

An Historic Citation

This is an update to an earlier story involving cyclist Randy Mason and the driver of a Flagstaff city transit bus. Just a few days ago I wrote that I considered it “highly unlikely” the city attorney would recommend any citations; boy was I wrong!

In Bicyclist 2 Bus Driver 0 Daily Sun article, the city attorney is recommending BOTH citations (speeding and §28-735) be issued. This is official recognition of the law is a huge win for cyclist safety.

Though this story obviously isn’t over; I wanted to highlight some of the significant developments Read the rest of this entry »

Driver Sentenced: Bullhead City cyclist killed in hit-and-run

Larissa Jean Castilleja

Larissa Jean Castilleja, 43, a Bullhead City High teacher was killed Sept 9, 2009 when a driver hit her and fled the scene.

This fatality bears many similarities to several of four recent fatalities in the Phoenix-metro area this past summer.

1. the automobile driver hit-and-ran (all 5 incidents)
2. DUI on the part of the automobile driver is suspected (at least 4 of the 5 incidents)
3. time of day was overnight/early morning (ranging from 10pm to 4am)
4. no improper actions on the part of the cyclist are suspected (all 5 incidents)

The suspect was later charged with manslaughter and leaving the scene, on Sept 28 he plead not guilty; and according to the Mojave Daily News, has secured himself  all-star Scottsdale DUI lawyer Scott Maasen. In granting the reduced bond, the judge expressed reservations and then … did it anyway! It was also revealed in that story that the defendant has an outstanding warrant for DUI in Nevada, which he says he is not aware of.

The Plea

The defendant plead guilty to manslaughter, leaving the scene, and DUI. Sentencing is scheduled for May 21, 2010. Case number S-8015-CR-200900986, online lookup.

Sentencing

The [mohavedailynews] had a pretty good rundown of the sentencing:

Judge Steven Conn sentenced Gagliardi to prison for 13 years for both felony crimes (8 for the manslaughter, 5 for hit-and-run), saying the two charges were separate crimes and deserved consecutive sentences. He only found a lack of criminal record as a mitigating factor and that Gagliardi also had about 20 moving violations, mostly for speeding. He found aggravating factors that Gagliardi’s blood alcohol rate was more than twice the legal limit and the emotional harm to Castilleja’s family. The judge also said he hoped the sentences would be a deterrent to people who visit the casinos and drink then get into their cars to drive home.

see also [kingmandailyminer].

Read the rest of this entry »