Author: ArizonaBikeLaw

Habitual bad driver in jail (for now)

Man charged in deadly US 60 crash will not be released from jail before trial. Case lookup reveals around TWENTY driving violations over the last ten years or so: speeding, bad lane change, etc, always including no license, no insurance… apparently escaped any sort significant punishment for his ongoing crimes.

Continue reading “Habitual bad driver in jail (for now)”

13-year-old dies nearly 2 weeks after hit-and-run in Glendale

47th and Northern Avenues: google maps

4/11/2024 bicyclist NB crosswalk 47th Ave was struck by an suv driver WB on Northern Ave. The bicyclists, 13 yo Elias Bizzle. The crash database indicate the bicyclist was crossing against the signal.

Police say the driver is 27 yo Joshua Holbert who according to police and court records fled the scene and then tried to hide his damaged vehicle, which was tracked down by using available surveillance video.

Hit and run w/fatal is a felony regardless of fault, but is often results in rather light sentences. He has a 2020 drugs case in Superior Court that might have had something to do with why he fled(?)

Later new reporting claims the suspect “has a history of reckless driving”; we don’t know what that’s about.

Northern Ave is pretty ugly; there are three westbound through lanes (two eastbound). 47th is a collector.

Continue reading “13-year-old dies nearly 2 weeks after hit-and-run in Glendale”

Bicyclist killed in Phoenix crash; driver suspected of impairment, speeding

8/12/2024 11:35p Cave creek near Dynamite.

Phoenix police are for whatever reason keeping the name of the driver a secret. This was 6 months ago; why no follow up? was anyone ever charged? good luck finding out because PPD won’t say.

This is way out there; I would have thought this was Scottsdale, but it’s city of Phoenix. The underage (for alcohol) driver is suspected of excessive speed and impairment; he may or may hot have been arrested(?). (Police normally release the name of someone who’s been arrested; investigation is ongoing in either case; whatever, not having the name of the suspect makes it difficult to look up outcomes. See this one for a driver who was arrested but name was never released; I had to dig it up by buying the police report)(orthisone.Whyasecret?) Continue reading “Bicyclist killed in Phoenix crash; driver suspected of impairment, speeding”

Tempe teen bicyclist hurt after crash with alleged red light runner

McClintock at Watson. (Watson is just north of Guadalupe). It appears driver ran a red along McClintock while the teen cyclist was crossing in a crosswalk at Watson. https://www.azfamily.com/video/2025/02/09/teen-bicyclist-hurt-after-crash-with-alleged-red-light-runner/

Recall that Jay fretz was killed in 2010 by a red light runner along McClintock at Alameda. https://azbikelaw.org/commuter-cyclist-killed-in-tempe/

Bicyclist struck and killed ‘crossing’ Van Buren

2025-02-11 856p Bicyclist was struck by an eastbound driver while ‘crossing’ Van Buren in the vicinity of 19th Ave, Phoenix.

While the term ‘crossing’ is confusing with regard to a bicyclist; it implies the bicyclist was behaving as a pedestrian (“pedestrian on wheels”), rather than operating vehicularly which may or may not be true. This area (sample location) has a profusion of driveways where vehicles (or bicyclists) may enter the roadway but only after yielding to traffic moving along the street (Van Buren). It makes little or no difference in determining fault; I  point it out only because it makes it harder to categorize the crash… and Phoenix in particular does seem to have a lot of such crashes resulting in bicyclist fatalities.
Continue reading “Bicyclist struck and killed ‘crossing’ Van Buren”

Carnage On World’s Roads Drops Slightly, But U.S. Is An Outlier

Spoiler alert: not an outlier in a good way.

This is an Forbes interview about an updated periodic international/global report on traffic safety, it appears to be based on up thru 2022 data Continue reading “Carnage On World’s Roads Drops Slightly, But U.S. Is An Outlier”

Suspected DUI driver crashes into Ahwatukee home

Yikes.

Suspected DUI? of course. Hit and Run? uh huh.

Arizona has tough DUI laws, right? Don’t count on it. If the driver is found to be impaired, expect nothing more than a misdemeanor DUI. Possibly misdemeanor hit-and-run (as apparently there were no injuries, unless you count the driver’s bump on the head). Prosecutors seem to have no imagination. EnDANGERment? Naw. Continue reading “Suspected DUI driver crashes into Ahwatukee home”

ebicyclist killed near 10th and Maple, Tempe

2025-02-04 ~130p

Driver eastbound 10th St near Maple, Tempe. These are residential streets inside of a neighborhood just west of ASU campus, quite dense with bicyclists and pedestrians. The posted speed limit in would have to assume is 25mph.

Check out complete list of Tempe bicyclist fatalities since 2009 here. Continue reading “ebicyclist killed near 10th and Maple, Tempe”

Bicyclist killed in crash at all-way stop in Prescott Valley

2025-02-02 8:17am

Prescott Valley PD posted on their facebook:

… on Sunday, February 2, 2025, at 8:17am involving a bicycle rider at the intersection of Viewpoint and Spouse Drive. The incident occurred when a male cyclist traveling north on Viewpoint did not yield to a motorist traveling east on Spouse. The cyclist was not wearing a helmet at the time of the a*******. (I censored the a-word. PVPD: please #crashnotaccident. I’m not a fan of the helmet comment, either). Continue reading “Bicyclist killed in crash at all-way stop in Prescott Valley”

More about missing Hit and Runs

I find any hit-and-run abhorrent. A hit-and-run driver involved in any traffic crash with any injury is a criminal felon; and if the injury is serious or results in death, it’s a serious felony (class 3 or 2). It’s worth pointing out that hit-and-run is a crime for the driver regardless of who caused the crash (i.e. which party had the right of way is irrelevant, except for sentencing).

The background is I noticed here and there over the years what seemed to me to be an odd listing in the traffic database of a fatal bicyclist, and an unknown vehicle with unknown everything else (direction, lane, lighting, etc etc) except for bicyclist demographic and it usually had a location, but was NOT listed as a hit-and-run. I inquired about a few of them and the story was always something like the coroner(I think?) submitted something somehow to traffic records. I brushed it off as something that happens very rarely; some sort of freak occurrence. However. It turns out there are dozens of such cases every year., unsurprisingly most of them are pedestrian. Continue reading “More about missing Hit and Runs”

Eat Like a Pig, Run Like a Horse

Book  “Eat Like a Pig, Run Like a Horse” subtitled “How Food Fights Hijacked Our Health and the New Science of Exercise” by Anastacia Marx de Salcedo

The premise of the book is that your health isn’t affected by what you eat (and weigh) anywhere near as much as cardiovascular fitness; in other words, a sedentary lifestyle is the fundamental problem.

The reference to “food fights” refers to the idea popularized by Ancel Keys, et.al in the 1950s and 60s that low fat (and in particular, eliminating saturated fat) diet is the key (pardon the pun) to good health have been largely discredited. Continue reading “Eat Like a Pig, Run Like a Horse”

Driver drank alcohol before crash that left bicyclist dead in Gilbert, police say

2024-03-02 1:25pm. location: Queen Creek Road, near Higley.

Driver “veered off” into the bike lane and killed John Pomeroy; the driver was arrested several months later (see news story, below) based on toxicology results which showed an unstated amount of alcohol along with a prescription drug.  However since that time the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has declined to bring charges for unknown  reasons…

Continue reading “Driver drank alcohol before crash that left bicyclist dead in Gilbert, police say”