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”
Category: safety
Tempe Traffic Collisions
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 16 bicyclist traffic fatalities in the past 17 years, 2009-2025, where 2025 is not necessarily complete]
Skip below to #fatal for an incident-by-incident description
Scope of the Problem
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”
Another Ahwatukee jogger killed on sidewalk: driver arrested
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”
PD: Bicyclist killed by impaired driver at South Mountain park in Phoenix
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”
Driver arrested: deadly 5-vehicle crash on I-10 near Wild Horse Pass
local story huge backup two dead mom/driver arrested on suspicion of
- (2) Counts of MURDER 2ND DEGREE
- (1) Count of AGG DUI-PASSENGER UNDER 15
- (9) Counts of ENDANGERMENT
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”
Enforcement drops, crashes proliferate, people die
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”
Number and Severity of Arizona bike-MV crashes
[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]
TL;DR? Here’s the bottom line:
Something suspicious is happening in 7 larger cities in Arizona ( ‘Chandler’, ‘Flagstaff’, ‘Glendale’, ‘Gilbert’, ‘Mesa’, ‘Scottsdale’, ‘Tempe’). That’s mostly the largest cities in AZ, excluding Phoenix and Tucson. In these 7 places, reported low-severity bike-MV crashes have decreased dramatically comparing before versus after 2014; suggesting some sort of policy change.[and note: the PDO limit issue of 2019, explained immediately above, doesn’t explain it, either]
Something suspicious is happening in 7 larger cities in Arizona ( ‘Chandler’, ‘Flagstaff’, ‘Glendale’, ‘Gilbert’, ‘Mesa’, ‘Scottsdale’, ‘Tempe’). That’s mostly the largest cities in AZ, excluding Phoenix and Tucson. In these 7 places, reported low-severity bike-MV crashes have decreased dramatically comparing before versus after 2014; suggesting some sort of policy change.[and note: the PDO limit issue of 2019, explained immediately above, doesn’t explain it, either]
Continue reading “Number and Severity of Arizona bike-MV crashes”
PD: Driver hit SUV, killed bicyclist in Glendale before hitting police car
[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”
Bicyclist dies after being hit by a truck in west Phoenix
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”
4 dead in I-17 wrong-way crash near Flagstaff
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”
Arizona Crash Facts 2016
ADOT has released Crash Facts 2016 in the later part of June (of 2016), a bit later than normal; and I received the database from them sometime in July.
The graphical crash map has been updated and now contains 2009-2016 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 2009-2016
Signals knocked down by driver
Some dangerous driving knocked down a traffic signal in the median of Warner Road at I-10 sometime 8/1 or 2. It’s not known is the responsible person hit-and-ran or what.
This is right down the same road where a dangerous driver killed the Childtime sign in July 2016, and also where a dangerous driver killed a bus stop in Feb 2015.
Apparently, this sort of driving goes on all the time, but no one seems to care much. Lots of property damage. Continue reading “Signals knocked down by driver”
Bicycle rider killed in collision with bus in Mesa
7/26/2017 ~ 8:40am. News reports Eastbound Bus on McKellips near Country Club crashed headon with a cyclist traveling westbound in the eastbound lane.
It was approaching the intersection of McKellips with Grand according to the map location in the news story. In a later news story a police spokesperson identified the bicyclist as Shedrick Galloway, 46/M, and said he “was hit when he veered in front of the bus”.
Wrong-way riding is a pretty common contributing factor in bike-mv collisions, however this type where the bicyclist is thought to have veered into the path of oncoming traffic is pretty rare. Another later news story relates that the bicyclist wasn’t feeling well and had already called a friend to come pick him up; so perhaps (speculation) he suffered some sort of medical emergency that caused the veering.
Continue reading “Bicycle rider killed in collision with bus in Mesa”
Phoenix police: Bicyclist identified after being hit by suspected drunk driver
fatal incident 8/27/2016; This was reported in the media at the time but I had missed it.
Cyclist Thomas J. Butler 39/M; 43rd Ave, just north of Bethany Home Road. It’s not clear when police say things like “The bicyclist tried to ride across the street, not in a crosswalk”; and there are inconsistencies in the data file; unfortunately the crash report itself is unavailable from the given file number, so the world will never know: Continue reading “Phoenix police: Bicyclist identified after being hit by suspected drunk driver”
One dead in Maricopa vehicle-bicycle collision
Thursday 5/25/2017 morning. Driver WB on State Route 238 at milepost 43 struck and killed a bicyclist. The story doesn’t say, but the scenario suggests strike-from behind.
SR-238 (here it is near MP 42) is a high-speed rural highway.
Continue reading “One dead in Maricopa vehicle-bicycle collision”