Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
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”
7/3/2018 morning. 15 y.o. male bicyclist Mason Taylor died of injuries several days after a crash near Old Nogales Highway and Quail Crossing Boulevard, Sahuarita. Continue reading “Sahuarita bicyclist killed in crash”
[update: confirming 2018-06-25 was not listed in FARS. What’s odd is it’s not listed in ASDM either?]
ped fatality in apt complex; victim 3 yo girl. Occurred in the parking lot of apartment complex near University Drive and Rural Road around 2 p.m. June 25, 2018
It’s been widely noted that AZ has a growing and worsening ped traffic fatality “problem”; fortunately this one doesn’t count (yes, this is sarcasm, but nevertheless true)… because it happened in a private lot, it’s non-traffic and as such doesn’t count as a traffic fatality; DUI or otherwise. (similar to e.g. little Daylin Garcia Enos who was killed in a Tucson apt complex parking lot by a backing UPS truck)
6/24/2018 around 4pm Baseline near 7th st, Phoenix.
From the probable cause statement:
The defendant was operating a motor vehicle in the area of 700 E Baseline road where he was traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes of Baseline Road. The def proceeded eastbound through the intersection of 7th street in the westbound curb lane of Baseline Road where he drove up onto the sidewalk along the north side of baseline road and struck the victim WHO WAS WALKING ON THE SIDEWALK…
Another out of control driver. Was said to have happened ~ 4am 5/28/2018. Didn’t see anything about it, other than in a nextdoor.com thread about “bad traffic” in Ahwatukee.
Pond near Ranch Circle and Mountain Parkway.
[below is for historical purposes; please visit the main consolidated page at uber-involved-pedestrian-fatality. The driver was finally charged in Sept 2020]
Tempe Police’s report on the March 2018 Uber-involved pedestrian fatality has been released, 318 pages(!) it was reported on 6/22/2018 from various news organizations. It would be good if all serious and fatal traffic crashes were investigated so thoroughly. Continue reading “Report: Uber driver streaming Hulu prior to deadly self-driving crash in Tempe”
It appears a speeding, red light running driver lost control and rammed into a Waymo. phoenixnewtimes.com. Early May 2018
5/20/2018, 743am. Ellsworth and Broadway. A little girl and her mother became collateral damage after two drivers collided, one vehicle began spinning and “jumped the curb of the southwest corner of the intersection (two pedestrians), who were standing on the sidewalk”.
One driver was attempting to turn left, the other going straight (a “left cross”); who caused the wreck? Police are still investigating, it’s not clear which of the two drivers caused it; what is clear is that one or the other or both drivers caused a crash that seriously injured the little girl, and caused minor injuries to her mother who were on the sidewalk at the time.
Continue reading “Little girl seriously hurt on sidewalk as driver jumps curb near Apache Junction”
The increased risk posed by SUV (more generally, “Light trucks”) drivers on other road users has been pointed out before, many years ago. See e.g. Lefler 2004, or Paulozzi 2005 for studies published in Accid Anal Prev, and Inj Prev. Though the harm to peds is notable, it also noted at that time by the IIHS this heightened risk, while decreasing (at that time, the early to mid 2000s) modestly, extends to drivers of other motor vehicles, see IIHS: SUVs Becoming Less Deadly.
4/5/2018 11:05am Bicyclist Stefan Ganster was struck from behind by the driver of a pickup in the 1200 block of W. Beale Street, Kingman, which is a.k.a. US-93, part of the S.H.S. He was seriously injured and died of his injuries several days later. A couple of odd remarks from the news story:
He was riding westbound on Beale Street in the curb lane. The pickup driver, also westbound in the inside lane, changed lanes and crashed into the bicyclist.
Vision obstruction and speed are believed to be factors in the crash.
