This was both DUI and hit-and-run; it also involved a minor passenger. Driver sentenced in a plea deal to 14 years prison / 7 years probation for 2nd degree murder + the hit-and-run (other charges? e.g. no license, minor involvement?). The case minute for sentence is here. View all case minutes for CR2014152207. Continue reading “Drunk driver gets 14 years for Chandler officer’s death”
Category: DUI
Court of Appeals rules against Nissley
Nissley was an impaired driver who killed a pedestrian, noted doctor Richard Pavese, on the sidewalk in 2010… seriously-how-often-does-this-happen !?
Driver arrested: 5 hurt when SUV slams into Glendale Restaurant
The driver who caused serious injuries in a May crash has been arrested and charged… “Glendale Police say 58-year-old Frank Kitko Junior was driving under the influence when he drove his sport-utility-vehicle into two people and took out a portion of a wall at the restaurant…” read more.
Drunk driver who killed two asks to be set free
Interesting look back at a 2004 DUI fatality; and sentencing. Here’s a news story from the crash which the DUI, red light running driver nearly wiped out an entire family, killing 2 and seriously injured another, the fourth family member escaped with only minor (physical) injuries: Continue reading “Drunk driver who killed two asks to be set free”
Use of alcohol as a risk factor for bicycling injury
Skip below if you’ve visited this page specifically to see the Johns Hopkins’ study.
FARS Alcohol Results
The FARS data has a number of alcohol (and drug) fields — the fields ATST_TYP, ALC_RES relate actual test type, and results. To simplify things, I’ve added a derived field sALC_RES to breaks down test results into: negative, .01 through .07, and .08+, or no results. Most fatally injured drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians do get tested. (for those that are not, there are imputed results available from a separate data file, see below).
Note that the ALC_RES field, the numerical result, has changed over the years, before 2015, it was listed as the number of hundredths of a percent BAC, e.g. 0.12 was coded as 12. In 2015 and later, it is coded as thousandths of a percent BAC, so the same result would be listed at 120. The logic for this is encapsulated in the file 20xx_person.sql in the synthetic value sALC_RES: intox / not intox.
FARS and Drug Testing
The coding for drug results in FARS is similar to the alcohol scheme, except there are no quantitative results, only positive/negative. Also there is no equivalent to the imputation of results for drugs.
FARS coding: positive results for drugs shows up in the field DSTATUS=2 (i.e. “test given”) and DRUGRES1, 2, or 3 have a number up to 999; all in the person table. 0 meand test not given; 1 means No Drugs Reported/Negative. Potentially illicits are in groups generally in hundreds, e.g. 100-295 are narcotics, 300’s are depressants, 600’s cannaboids. Anything 996 or above are various meanings for unknown.
Examples: Zolpidem (Ambien) is 375. See pages 579-594 of the FARS Coding and Validation Manual.
FARS and Imputation of Alcohol Results
Driving while intoxicated has been recognized as a significant serious safety factor for decades; at the same time, it’s long been recognized that many involved in fatal traffic collisions (mostly drivers but sometimes peds and bicyclists) do not have recorded alcohol test results. This nhtsa report published in 2002 explains most of the deep background and terminology on the scheme to “fill in” missing results: Continue reading “Use of alcohol as a risk factor for bicycling injury”
Today’s car-crime wrapup
remember, these are only the most-sensational ones; there were undoubtedly dozens of hit and runs, and various other assorted DUIs, serious injuries, and deaths.
In Avondale (Phoenix metro area, “west valley”)
Police: Meth fueled high-speed chase with children in car / A routine traffic stop in the West Valley took a violent turn on Wednesday night after police said a man shoved a woman out of a car and led officers on a high-speed chase down 75th Avenue with the woman’s children in the car, according to court records. Avondale police initially tried to stop the car 35-year-old Stewart Galligan…
Meanwhile in Scottsdale
Video shows suspect ramming Scottsdale police / The driver of an SUV whom police shot Thursday in a Safeway parking lot near Hayden and Chaparral roads twice tried to ram his way out of a trap, based on surveillance video released Friday by the Scottsdale Police Department…. The surveillance video shows at least a half-dozen police vehicles converging on the SUV. Officers exit their vehicles and quickly approach the SUV, which the driver puts in reverse and slams into a police vehicle. Several seconds pass before the SUV pulls forward slightly. The driver then puts the SUV in reverse, and again rams a police vehicle…
Semi driver charged in I-17 fatality
[Update: Sentencing here]
11/19/2014: 1 fatality (possibly a second, later) and several injuries when semi driver Brian Knoll drove into a line of stopped traffic on I-17 near Bell Road. He’s been charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault and endangerment; and entered a plea of not guilty to all charges on 12/3. Continue reading “Semi driver charged in I-17 fatality”
Another MM decision; MM card is no defense to DUI
About two weeks after MEDICAL MARIJUANA NO DEFENSE TO DUI CHARGE, another Arizona Court of Appeals Div 1 decision came down that is related to and as expected consistent with their earlier opinion. Please visit that link for more info and scroll down to “Another Court of Appeals Case 11/4/2014”.
Medical marijuana no defense to DUI charge
Quick reference to Marijuana / DUI cases
- Supreme Court Harris decision filed 4/22/2014 — (A)(3) charges must be based on an impairing chemical, and not just an inactive metabolite; this was a reversal. This was not a medical marijuana case. More Here.
- Court of Appeals Darrah decision filed 10/21/2014, see below. Authorized use of marijuana does not preclude (A)(3) charge.
- Court of Appeals Dobson and Anderson decision filed 11/4/2014, see below. Additionally, the §28-1381D. immunity for prescription drugs does not include marijuana.
- Arizona Supreme Court, Dobson and Anderson filed 11/20/2015, see below
Continue reading “Medical marijuana no defense to DUI charge”
Woman with DUI history arrested in Mesa fatal collision
Oh yeah, this one:
A woman accused of driving her SUV about 90 mph before colliding with a car stopped at a red light in east Mesa, killing both occupants, was arrested on Monday. Mesa police booked Ingrid I. Morataya, 35, on suspicion of manslaughter and other charges after she was discharged from a Valley hospital…. The driver and the passenger in the car struck by Morataya’s Toyota FJ Cruiser — Guadalupe Madril, 37, and Jason Aguilera, 33 — died instantly of massive injuries from the violent collision, according to court records… azcentral.com Continue reading “Woman with DUI history arrested in Mesa fatal collision”
Driver Sentenced: Serious Injuries in Scottsdale Pedicab Crash
[1/15/2014: azcentral.com Man in Scottsdale pedicab crash sentenced to 4 years in prison; Joseph Paul Spano pleaded guilty to two counts aggravated assault plus one endangerment ]
Two passengers of a pedicab were very seriously injured when they were struck by an suspected drunk driver in an early morning hours crash near downtown Scottsdale 1/4/2013. The pedicab’s driver was also injured. The crash occurred as the pedicab was traveling north on Scottsdale Road near Rose Lane.
Seriously injured Cody A. Clark and Michael D. Tysver were both Kansas state fans in town for the Fiesta Bowl. The automobile driver “Phoenix resident Joseph Paul Spano, 27, was driving the sedan that collided with the pedicab and was arrested on suspicion of DUI, endangerment and aggravated assault”. Aggravated assault, §13-1204, can be a fairly serious charge; depending on a variety of factors. Continue reading “Driver Sentenced: Serious Injuries in Scottsdale Pedicab Crash”
Agg Assault Trial set in Scottsdale Pedicab crash
[ Final outcome: Defendant took a plea deal in Jan 2014 see seroius-injuries-in-scottsdale-pedicab-crash ]
Trial has been delayed and is now set for 8/19/2013 (now slipped to 12/9/2013) in the trial stemming from a driver who police believe was DUI plowed into a pedicab on 1/4/2013. Two passengers, were seriously injured; see more at seroius-injuries-in-scottsdale-pedicab-crash. Kansas state fans Cody A. Clark and Michael D. Tysver were seriously injured; the pedicab operator Jeremiah J. Armijo was also injured. Police stated the pedicab was being operated legally at the time of the collision.
Driver Joseph Spano has been indicted on two counts of aggravated assault, and three counts of endangerment.
Case CR2013-100750 at Maricopa County Superior Court; case minutes; the prosecutor is Tiffany Brady, and the defense attorney is Jonathan Dessaules.
There is no DUI charge (that seems normal for these kinds of cases, but I don’t exactly know why). There aren’t many case minutes; the comprehensiv pretrial conference minute from April 8 mentions that “The State is requesting an aggravating factors trial to the jury”, and that “A plea offer was made” (and was apparenlty not accepted. there is no detail of the offer in the minutes, that i see anyway).
Scottsdale Cyclist dies after hit-and-run crash
Below is chronological history of hit-and-run fatality w/DUI, incident occurred 1/13/2012 through sentencing.
The sentence is, apparently, from what we now know, typical. Despite what appear to be harsh penalties for any hit-and-run, the justice system (courts and prosecutors) ignore what appear to be minimum sentences; for example the felony 3 the driver plead guilty to carries a presumptive minimum of 3.5 years in prison, and a mandatory suspension of driver’s license from 5 to 10 years; and these penalties are to run in addition to any other penalties (in this case, the extreme DUI). In short, it appears nobody goes to prison for hit-and-run; the statutory penalties are a paper tiger.
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Suspected alcohol involved and hit-and-run driver who seriously injured bicyclist Steven Douglas Langager on January 13, 2012. Langager subsequent died from injuries sustained.
The driver’s name was never released in the media; Scottsdale PD PIO said the suspect in the “Jan collision included Roger Stevensen, 60 yrs old” (probably ROGER ALLAN STEVENSON, 05/1951).
He was subsequently indicted in September on charges of extreme DUI and felony H&R; the case is docketed as S-0700-CR-2012008319 Continue reading “Scottsdale Cyclist dies after hit-and-run crash”
Phoenix police officer dies in fatal hit-and-run
[Update: driver sentenced, see below] Although it seems obvious that police work is dangerous because there are bad guys with guns trying to kill them; roughly the same number of policeman killed in the line of duty die as the result of a traffic collision than by being shot (or stabbed)….
May 19, 2013 ~ 3:30a, Phoenix police officer Daryl Raetz was killed while “processing a DUI suspect near 51st and Cambridge avenues when he was struck by a green Ford Expedition, which then fled the scene”. azcentral.com. The story doesn’t give much detail, I would assume from what was presented he was a pedestrian, which is consistent with the picture of the SUV that struck Raetz, which police released later. Continue reading “Phoenix police officer dies in fatal hit-and-run”
NAU student cyclist killed in hit-and-run
9/9/2012 Hit and run incident. Witnesses say driver was excessive speed in a residential neighborhood, near the intersection of Walapai and Mohawk Drives, in Flagstaff. “22-year-old Kelsey Lou Cody of Flagstaff was arrested on charges of manslaughter and fleeing the scene of a fatal accident”… police say alcohol was a factor. victim: Jordan A. Murphy-Mahoney, 21 years old. azdailysun.com story Continue reading “NAU student cyclist killed in hit-and-run”