Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
Law enforcement officers face significant risk of injury and death from traffic incidents; it’s a serious occupational hazard; The leading cause of death for police are … traffic collisions — not shootings or other attacks, and very few of the collisions involve high-speed chases. Just run-of-the-mill crashes where inattentive or otherwise impaired drivers crash into them. Continue reading “DPS: Driver who killed officer was texting and driving”
He came to the attention of police when “a state trooper spotted him driving with his right-side wheels on the shoulder of the road“.
People, this is the drifting behavior so often exhibited by drunk or distracted drivers that so often kills or injures bicyclists during so-called “motorist overtaking” errors.
12/6/2018 ~ 6:30pm. 52nd St & Broadway, Tempe.The driver Jaquin Gurulee, 29, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of manslaughter and DUI.Historical footnote, a bicyclist was killed at this intersection 2/2/20116. In the 2016 incident, police say the bicyclist traveling along Broadway Rd and disregarded a signal.
Continue reading “Police ID bicyclist hit, killed by vehicle in Tempe; DUI suspected”
DUI drivers remain a serious threat to every road user, whether you walk, or jog, or ride a bike or ride a motorcycle, or drive a car. SSTI recently published a good review of related research on the occasion of Utah being the first US state to lower per se limit to 0.05 BAC.
The latest gem is a driver who initially came to the attention of police when they “began receiving calls reporting a reckless driver in a Nissan Rogue traveling on the sidewalk and nearly striking several vehicles along Milton Road in Flagstaff.” Police stopped the vehicle but the driver fled, ending up going wrong way on I-40. This is on a Saturday (11/17/2018) afternoon around 3:30pm. Continue reading “Wrong-way driver arrested: DUI susp”
10/15/2018 9:30PM; Rural Road just north of Guadalupe Road, Tempe. Yesterday evening, a speeding driver lost control, crossing over bike lanes, sidewalk, and eventually ran into a building.
PD: Street racing may have led to driver crashing into Tempe building
TEMPE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) – A driver has life-threatening injuries after slamming into a building…Police say two drivers were speeding next to each other when one of them spun out and crashed into the building on the corner.
Continue reading “PD: Street racing may have led to driver crashing into Tempe building”
This horrible incident occurred in Springfield Township, OH October 2018. I’m listing it here as a point of reference regarding hit-and-run and traffic justice. It’s also a good reminder that law enforcement officers face significant risks from dangerous drivers, compared to other occupations risks, e.g. bad guys with guns. Continue reading “Suspect arrested in hit-and-run that injured deputy”
10/11/2018 Thursday “morning”; victim 71 y.o. bicyclist Rick Ellwanger
Driver arrested suspected impairment. Wrong-way; hit-and-run; additional pedestrian victims.
On Friday afternoon police identified the suspect as 20-year-old Yanibra Moreno saying she’s being held on susp of 2nd degree murder and leaving the scene.
Continue reading “Wrong-way driver kills bicyclist on A-mountain”
9/23/2018 9:30am pedestrian 48 y.o. male Dana Machado was killed when a driver drove onto the sidewalk where the victim was walking his dog. Police arrested driver Richard Cruz on susp of DUI and are awaiting tox results.
Continue reading “Driver jumps curb, kills Mesa man on sidewalk”
9/25/2018 ~ 4pm Victim 24y.o. male Daniel J. Clark. (ASDM says 9/26, not 9/25)
Virtually no details were released, other than the approx location of near the intersection of Germann Road and Airport Boulevard. There is a trail/canal crossing Germann Road there. Continue reading “Chandler police investigating collision that killed bicyclist”
ADOT has released Crash Facts 2017 in mid-year 2018 as usual; I received the database from them sometime in late August, as usual on a burned CD.
The graphical crash map has been updated and now contains 2009-2017 for both MV-bike and MV-ped crashes.
The Fatality Grid has been reconciled and contains some specifics on every bicyclist fatality in Arizona from 2009-2017 Continue reading “Arizona Crash Facts 2017”
There have been a couple of particularly violent & deadly head-on crashes on state routes recently. In both cases, there was no immediate speculation or cause of why the drivers crossed over and drove the wrong way.
In an Aug 30, 2018 incident occurred on a Thursday afternoon when the 47 y.o. male driver of a Ford SUV crossed over and collided head-on with a Suburban. Both drivers were killed as well as a toddler who was a passenger in the suburban. Continue reading “3 killed in fatal SUV crash on SR 89”
9/13/2018 ~7PM Bicyclist 40 y.o. female, Rebecca Benson
No details; Gilbert police announced at 7:14pm that “Officers are on scene investigating a fatal vehicle vs. bicycle collision on Baseline, east of Lindsay Road”. Continue reading “Fatal bicycle-vehicle crash restricts Baseline Road in Gilbert”
There were 32 reported bicyclist traffic fatalities in Arizona in 2017.
For a grid-view of each of the 32, see this google docs sheet, which cross-references everything.
16 of the incidents have individual articles about them (tagged 2017 cyclist fatality). Below is a narrative as much as can be determined from either a crash report, or simply the data; for each of the other 16 fatalities that are not other wise documented in an individual article. Continue reading “2017 Arizona Bicyclist Traffic Fatalities”
9/4/2018 “early morning hours”. Victim 20 y.o. Cody Nielsen.
The timeline is a bit confusing but apparently he was struck by a hit-and-runner; then sometime later (at least long enough to make a phone call) while apparently lying in the road (otherwise incapacitated?) was struck by a second driver, who remained on the scene. Police have not released any description of the hit-and-runner(?). Continue reading “El Mirage bicyclist killed in early morning hit and run”
