Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
12/1/2017 ~ 1:30pm A SB driver 19th Ave near Broadway, Phoenix while speeding and illegally passing vehicles (i.e. driving SB in NB lanes), lost control and drove up on the sidewalk, killing 13 y.o. Cordell Gooch
Police say there were “early indications that the driver showed signs of impairment”
A driver drove up on the sidewalk and killed a woman and injured her child near 41st St and Jomax, Phoenix.
Police describe the incident as murder, and a ‘random act of violence’. Quite.
Continue reading “Sidewalk driver accused of murder in a ‘random act of violence’”
[ 1/29/2018 City of Tempe is considering changing cyclist right-of-way rules. This is potentially very involved and intricate. See both below, and also see letter and replies from Councilman Keating sent as CAZBike ]
[ 11/24 Updates on this shocking crosswalk fatality continue to ooze out from Tempe police, as the grieving family of Xiaoying Wen came to Tempe from China seeking answers; “Tempe police said both had the green light, but Wen failed to yield, and Tempe city law dictates that bicyclists must yield to motorists”. See below for this bad local law. LAB Bike Friendly GOLD? ]
The 11/21 News story says the crash occurred ‘last week” ? news media seems to report less and less.
Date: [Thursday 11/16/2017 ~ 4:15pm per comment below] Location: intersection of Rural Road and Vista del Cerro Drive
Continue reading “ASU doctoral student killed in Tempe crosswalk crash”
Crash October 13, 2017 ~ 1:30pm La Cañada (a.k.a. Rancho Resort Road) and Sahuarita Road. The description from the new report was, a driver “traveling north on [presumably South] La Cañada [Drive] collided with the bicyclist at the intersection of Sahuarita Road as the bicyclist tried to turn north [i.e. a right turn] from westbound Sahuarita Road” Continue reading “Serious injury crash Sahuarita”
There have been 4 bicyclists killed in Tempe traffic collisions on city streets (excludes limited-access highways) over the past 5 years [five year period 2010-2014); at the same time dozens of motorists and 14 pedestrians have been killed.
[UPDATed totals: There have been a total of 9 bicyclist traffic fatalities in the past 13 years, 2009-2021]
Skip below to #fatals for an incident-by-incident description
For the figures in this report, a 5-year time period, 2010-2014 was selected (the most recent available at the time; 2015 & 16 has since become available). Many additional crashes occur (14,000!) occur in Tempe on limited access highways; these crashes are not included.
There were 21,167 traffic crashes reported in the period, below are the number of people, by person type, involved: Continue reading “Tempe Traffic Collisions”
Holy sh!t, another one, I mean another jogger in Ahwatukee killed by a dangerous out-of-control driver… this is a small place. Freak “accident”? Two freak “accidents”?;
11/2/2017 ~ 4AM . Pedestrian / jogger killed on sidewalk near Lakewood Parkway and Amberwood Drive this is a collector road in a residential neighborhood. Police suspect driver was impaired, she was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Witnesses reported that the driver of the vehicle, 25-year-old Shannon Scott, was driving on the sidewalk when Hilts was struck”
Continue reading “Another Ahwatukee jogger killed on sidewalk: driver arrested”
FINAL(?) UPDATE: sentencing occurred 10/14/2022; see discussion below.
10/29/2017 bicyclist killed in headon crash with wrong-way susp. impaired driver.
Summit Trail Road inside South Mountain Park, Phoenix. There were no specific location given, here is a sample of the Summit Road.
Continue reading “PD: Bicyclist killed by impaired driver at South Mountain park in Phoenix”
local story huge backup two dead mom/driver arrested on suspicion of
Saturday 10/21/2017 evening around 9PM. I-10 near Wild Horse Pass Blvd, just south of Ahwatukee /Chandler.
Are we safe yet?
Would more enforcement help?
Would wrong-way freeway detection have prevented this tragedy?
Answers: No, Probably, and No.
Continue reading “Driver arrested: deadly 5-vehicle crash on I-10 near Wild Horse Pass”
Tim Steller’s excellent (dare I say, stellar?) piece in the Daily Star: Enforcement drops, crashes proliferate, pedestrians die exposes the inexplicable sharp decline in traffic enforcement in the City of Tuscon by the Tuscon PD. Continue reading “Enforcement drops, crashes proliferate, people die”
10/2/2017 Monday evening ~ 8PM. Police say impairment may be involved. Southern near Hardy. Two motorists died and a third is in critical condition. (died later)
Southern is one of Tempe’s series/network of high-speed arterial roads. High speeds are conducive to death. Pedestrians and Bicyclist do often become collateral damage, but motorists are the most frequent victims. Continue reading “2 Dead 1 Critical in Tempe Wreck”
[google doc spreadsheet gets updated more frequently but with statewide data only. At this moment, includes final data thru 2023, also highlights (suspected) “missing” hit and runs]
[quick update on 2021 Crash Facts data — the pattern continues, the total number of reported cyclist crashes was only 1025. Notwithstanding a historically high fatality count of 43]
[at some point, ADOT began “scrubbing” PDO. As explained in the 12th Edition of the crash from instructions, linked here, effective 8/2019 AZ law bumped up the PDO reporting threshold from $1,000 to $2,000. As can be seen easily at the spreadsheet linked at Crash Facts 2021, No-injury (and unknown injury) reports became exactly zero commencing with 2019).
In any event the PDO change would not explain all or even most of the dramatic decrease in reported non-fatal bicyclist crashes]
Continue reading “Number and Severity of Arizona bike-MV crashes”
Driver charged with endangerment and 2nd degree murder and in last week’s killing of Peter Rankin who was on the sidewalk. Medical reports say the driver had a BAC of 0.235, almost triple the legal limit (anything over .20 would be “super-extreme” DUI).
more here: pd-driver-hit-suv-killed-bicyclist-in-glendale-before-hitting-police-car
.
Continue reading “Navajo Nation police officer charged with murder in deadly Glendale crash”
[update: 9/28/2017 — driver charged w/ 2nd degree murder]
Impaired drivers remain a serious threat to bicyclists. And pedestrians. And other drivers. And passengers.
9/22/2017 “just after midnight” Bicyclist (60-year-old Peter Rankin) killed incidentally when a suspected impaired, speeding driver (Kevin Richard Hevel, 30) sideswiped another vehicle; jumped the curb onto the sidewalk where he struck and killed the bicyclist, kept going (of course) and continued on to rear-end a Glendale police cruiser. Near 59th and Glendale Ave, in Glendale, AZ. Continue reading “PD: Driver hit SUV, killed bicyclist in Glendale before hitting police car”
9/21/2017 around 6:45am. A male bicyclist killed in collision with a truck driver. The crash occurred on west Thomas Road, Phoenix; somewhere between 46th and 48th Ave.
There were no details released; the only tangential oddity was “The driver of the truck remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators but was later arrested on an unrelated outstanding warrant” Continue reading “Bicyclist dies after being hit by a truck in west Phoenix”
A driver driving the wrong way on the freeway killed all four occupants of the other vehicle. Police have not revealed why they think driver was driving the wrong way, however, they did note that this year
“…DPS arrested 52 people suspected of driving the wrong way… Ultimately, each of the 52 drivers arrested was found to be impaired”.
So, 100% of wrong-way drivers were impaired. Wrong way driving appears to be an impaired driver problem. Continue reading “4 dead in I-17 wrong-way crash near Flagstaff”