ArizonaBikeLaw

The drunken crash that led to tougher Arizona DUI law

The Arizona Republic has been running a series of throwback stories from the files of report Don Bolles who was murdered in 1976, presumably related to mob investigations he was conducting.

This one, unrelated to mob, popped up this week Don Bolles files: The drunken crash that led to tougher Arizona DUI law

The quick synopsis was in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday 1971 a very drunk driver at .251 BAC killed 3 people and left a 4th person in a permanent vegetative state. He was portrayed as being not particularly remorseful. He ultimately served 6 months of a 1 year sentence for a guilty plea to misdemeanor manslaughter. Continue reading “The drunken crash that led to tougher Arizona DUI law”

Teen hit, killed on bike while crossing Gilbert street

9/24/2019 ~ 6PM Gilbert Police said a 15 y.o. girl was seriously injured while crossing Greenfield Road after being struck by a southbound(not sure?) driver. She died the next morning.

This is at the trail crossing of Greenfield Road and the Western Power Line / Sun Circle Trail. The crossing there, unlike many of the others further west, has no signal or markings. Continue reading “Teen hit, killed on bike while crossing Gilbert street”

Multi-bicycle crash in Goodyear

Daylight-visible headlight in use at time of the crash

Goodyear police are investigating a 9/12/2019 crash that occurred around 6:30 involving 3 cyclists transported with injuries, and a fourth who was not transported. The news-chopper footage shows a black sedan, as well as a large number of additional cyclists who were presumably riding together in a group but were not directly involved in the crash. 12news.com azcentral Continue reading “Multi-bicycle crash in Goodyear”

Arizona Bicyclist and Ped Crash Map

Volunteer Needed

crashmap

URGENT: Google has announced the tool used to present the crash maps on Azbikelaw, called “Fusion Tables” is being discontinued Dec 3, 2019.
Azbikelaw is looking for a volunteer familiar with GIS and web-presentation to help effect transition to something else.
That something else would likely need to be free-to-use, either open source or free-commercial. Commercial tools run the cost gamut from prohibitively expensive to free for non-commercial use, which this application would be.
Ideally the replacement would offer all the features of fusion tables; which includes in addition to mapping, rudimentary filtering; for example find all crashes occurring at night in some particular city where a motorist was turning left in years 2010-2015.

Contact azbikelaw by leaving a comment or email

Continue reading “Arizona Bicyclist and Ped Crash Map”

Two girls hurt in Tempe crosswalk crash

This stopped vehicle was propelled into the crosswalk, injuring two girls

In last week’s (8/30/2019 afternoon) serious crash a pedestrian crossing Broadway was hospitalized after being struck by a driver. Victim-blamers will joyfully point out that the crash occurred “near Hardy Drive outside of the crosswalk”. Jaywalker! Worse yet, the driver — the “other victim” here — is being persecuted for being suspected of DUI. — Driver arrested for DUI after hitting pedestrian in Tempe Continue reading “Two girls hurt in Tempe crosswalk crash”

Bicyclist dies after injuries in hit-run Prescott Valley crash

Aug 20, 2019 ~ 8PM. The crash occurred near the intersection of East Frontage Road and North Starlight Drive, Prescott Valley. There were no details on the manner of collision.

Hit and run, bicyclist suffered serious injuries and died several days later on Aug 26. The suspect driver was book on suspicion of aggravated assault, etc.; hinting the police believe the driver was impaired and caused the crash. Now that the victim has died, charges would presumably be upgraded to a homicide.

Continue reading “Bicyclist dies after injuries in hit-run Prescott Valley crash”

Arizona Crash Facts 2018

ADOT has released Crash Facts 2018 in the later part of June (of 2019), as usual; this year and I did not order CDs but rather accessed the raw data online sometime in July (it will in relatively rare cases be updated after this).

The graphical crash map has been NOT updated and so continues to have years 2009-2017 ; the tool used to present the map, Google fusion tables, is being discontinued end of 2019, and I need to find a replacement.

The Fatality Grid has been reconciled and contains some specifics on every bicyclist fatality in Arizona from 2009-2018, and ongoing as discovered.

Continue reading “Arizona Crash Facts 2018”

Updates and Twitter feed

Message to my loyal azbikelaw readers: Most of the time, I don’t create a new article, but rather add information to a related existing article; for example a new bike lane was added right near my house, and I placed info about it in the article about shoehorning.

SO FROM EARLY 2019 ONWARD PLEASE SEE @azbikelaw ‘s TWITTER FEED FOR UPDATE NOTIFICATIONS. (and note that a twitter account is not necessary, though if you do have an account please “follow” @azbikelaw and you’ll receive notifications via twitter)

E-mail subscribers still receive notifications as usual but only when a new article is posted, not when I add infomation to an existing article.

Another Cardinals exec arrested susp of DUI

This comes about a year after Arizona Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim was arrested and plead guilty to extreme DUI, emphasis added:

“The Chandler Police Department released a report on Wednesday afternoon detailing the traffic stop and arrest of Ron Minegar, the Arizona Cardinals executive vice president and chief operating officer, Saturday night on suspicion of driving under the influence… A 911 caller alerted police about a white Chevrolet Tahoe swerving and possibly speeding up to 60 mph, according to the report.
An officer stopped Minegar around 11:30 p.m. near Pecos Road and Arizona Avenue for speeding, failure to drive within one lane of traffic and driving within the bicycle lane “— azcentral 8/14/2019 Continue reading “Another Cardinals exec arrested susp of DUI”

McClintock And Warner Wreck

There is nothing remarkable about this intersection; it is a prototypical arterial-arterial signalized intersection like many others in the Phoenix Metro area — this one is in the City of Tempe. Both streets are high-speed (45mph posted maximum limit); with two through lanes, a bike lane in each direction; in addition each approach the bike lane discontinues ~ 250′ from the intersection where the space flares to become a dedicated right turn only lane, additionally all approaches have a dedicated right turn only lane. The signal is timed, and there is a demand, leading, left turn arrow on all approaches. Continue reading “McClintock And Warner Wreck”

Police: Pickup truck driver deliberately hit stalled motorcycle

Hit and run driver suspect vehicle: Toyota Tacoma TRD 1998-99 model

Hit and run. Police are treating this as a suspected aggravated assault; according to the silent witness flyer

Continue reading “Police: Pickup truck driver deliberately hit stalled motorcycle”

Tucson bicyclist dies months after hit-and-run collision

3/12/2019 A hit and run driver struck a bicyclist along West Ajo Way near Interstate 19. The bicyclist 70 y.o. David Ramirez died in July of injuries suffered.

Readers of these pages will recall the justice system in Arizona fails to treat hit and run drivers as serious criminals, despite it being a serious felony.

Also as a statistical note, this death will not “count” statistically as a traffic fatality because the victim died more than 30 days after the incident; these and other non-fatality-fatalities get recorded below the line in the spreadsheet

Continue reading “Tucson bicyclist dies months after hit-and-run collision”

PD: Impaired driver hit, killed man riding bicycle along Mesa street

7/9/2019 ~5PM McDowell Road near Higley; police say an eastbound driver drifted into the very wide bike lane and killed bicyclist Scott Purdie who was also eastbound. The driver was arrested due exhibiting signs of impairment.

Continue reading “PD: Impaired driver hit, killed man riding bicycle along Mesa street”

4 y.o. killed

June 27, 2019 time unspecified. 4 y.o. boy Royal ( parents: Veronica Sandoval & Eric Chavez) killed by pickup in Mesa; not many details. Possibly backing? no location listed; it sort of implies it was near his home.

Gofundme page, JusticeForRoyal, to help the victim’s parents, Veronica Sandoval & Eric Chavez, with expenses.

Continue reading “4 y.o. killed”

Hit and run driver kills man in Somerton

June 22, 2019; time unspecified; A hit and run driver driving on the shoulder killed a 77 y.o. male bicyclist. US95 near County 15th Street., Somerton AZ (Yuma County)

This is possibly a #drifted error, though without more details it’s hard to know; the driver may well have been drunk and lost control.

Continue reading “Hit and run driver kills man in Somerton”