Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
4/9/2016 ~ 7 pm near Kadota Avenue and Saguaro Street, Casa Grande, AZ.
Victim: 20 y.o. Emily Akins.
Driver: suspect Christina Rascon, 40 has been arrested in connection with the hit and run.
Continue reading “Casa Grande fatal hit and run; suspect arrested”
A motorist was fatally injured when a plane crashed into the rear-end of a stopped vehicle. Continue reading “Stupid Things People Won’t Say”
Police are seeking the driver of a dark-colored GMC Sierra pickup truck w/large chrome wheels that was involved with a fatal hit and run collision 27th Ave near Bethany Home Road, Phoenix. Bicyclist Darryl Fitzgerald Summers was killed in the crash.
51-year-old Darryl Summers dies after hit-and-run crash; police looking for dark truck: Police say Summers was following all safety protocol including wearing a helmet and reflective vest, having bike lights and reflectors, and riding with traffic. Still, he suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to the hospital where he later died.
Continue reading “h/r Alert: dark GMC Sierra pickup truck w/large chrome wheels”
After a decade (or more?), Arizona lawmakers have finally banned photo-enforcement; but only on roads which are part of the State Highway System. Lest you be confused, the state highway system includes not only the interstates and other “controlled-access”/ freeways, but many miles of country highway, and also includes some what would appear to be normal city streets.
The state of arizona did used to have photo enforcement years ago on some freeways; but were removed by executive, not legislative, action.
Anyway, there are two. I mean two camera locations, in the entire state, that are affected by the ban. (I am unclear as to whether these were only speed, or red-light, or both, or just what). Continue reading “AZ Legislators finally ban (some) photo enforcement”
Rear-end crashes are, by far, the most common motor vehicle crash. Looking at all MV-MV (that is, motor vehicle crashes excluding single-vehicle crashes), a whopping 47% were classified as rear-end, using 2012 Arizona data. That’s almost 50,000 rear-end collisions a year, just in Arizona!
The explanations generally run to generic excuses: the driver of the striking vehicle was driving too fast for conditions, or “distraction” — which are more-or-less true by definition. Continue reading “2 percent of rear-end crashes involve a slowly-moving lead vehicle”
3/24/2016 The urge to call every boom-boom that drivers become involved with reaches absurd proportions. This chase ended only when police intentionally caused the suspect’s vehicle to crash. This is not an accident. Yet some members of the media insist on saying things like “Thursday’s pursuit ended with a rollover accident when the suspect crossed the median, rolled his truck and then was ejected”. Sorry tucsonnewsnow.com/KOLD-tv 13, this was no accident. #crashnotaccident. Continue reading “High-speed chase suspect also wanted in Tucson hit-run”
3/21/2016 ~ 8pm Bicyclist struck going northbound in the intersection of Queen Creek Road and Ranch House Parkway, Gilbert, AZ
The bicyclist was identified as 28 year-old Erik Alsaker.
The driver fled the scene. Police are looking for a dark colored, small SUV or sedan w/ heavy front-end passenger side damage.
A note about data sources
Data from all these sources is located centrally on this google docs spreadsheet. which covers each bicyclist fatality occurring from 2009 onward.
Normally these are all in agreement, however there are multiple inconsistencies in both 2013 and 2014 that I cannot resolve. Continue reading “Missing 2013 and 2014 Fatalities”
3/12/2016 7:30pm. Police describe the single-vehicle collision as an apparent suicide by the driver. 48th Street, just west of Elliot Rd, Phoenix. (that’s “Biscuit’s” yellow sign in the background)… Continue reading “Ahwatukee traffic fatality is apparent suicide”
3/3/2016 Two peds on the sidewalk were injured after two motor vehicles collided in the of 7th Ave and Jefferson. This is one of Phoenix’s many, massively wide arterial-arterial intersections where any error can easily, and often does, result in mayhem. In this case, the two pedestrians and one of the MV drivers were fortunate to escape with only non-life-threatening injuries.
Vision Zero anyone? There are over 100,000 MV crashes per year in Arizona, resulting in many thousands of incapacitating injuries, and nearly 1,000 fatalities; victims are drivers, passengers, pedestrians and bicyclists. Each year… and the trend recently is up.
Thursday 3/3/2016 mid-day. A Driver crashed into a “large group” (the news report said ~ 15) of cyclists who were stopped at a traffic signal, and standing in a BL, nonetheless. At the time of this writing two are dead, and several more injured. The driver was arrested on DUI charges and was taken into custody. North La Cañada Drive and West Overton/Hardy Road, which is in Pima County, and is being investigated by the Pima County Sheriff’s Office.
bicycletucson.com has updated information; the identity of the suspect and the two fatality victims has been released:
(suspect) Brian Lynch, 28, struck five members of the group. Clare Rhodes, 72, died at the scene and Kenneth Vieira, 68, died at the hospital. The other cyclists were transported to the hospital where one cyclist remains in critical condition.
Continue reading “Multiple Pima Co fatality; Driver arrested”
The driver in one of the headon freeway collisions was sentenced in a plea deal to 14 years in prison. Stephen Martin plea guilty to 2nd degree murder for causing the Jan 2015 death of Phoenix dispatcher Megan Lange. Continue reading “Wrong-way driver sentenced to 14 years in death of Phoenix fire dispatcher”
[mid/late 2016 NSC estimates for fatalities are up big-time over 2015]
As a follow on to last week’s story about how Arizona 2015 traffic fatalities are up by at least 15% …
Preliminary data prepared by the NSC shows traffic fatalities nationally are expected to be up 10% (though an AP story says 8%) . And FHWA preliminary data shows total VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) will increase to 3.1T miles, compared with 3T in 2014; (so perhaps a 3.5% increase). Continue reading “Total VMT and fatalities are up”
Preliminary data from ADOT shows a notable increase in traffic fatalities in 2015. At present the preliminary toll is 891 for 2015 — but is expected to rise as final reports trickle in — compared to 773 deaths in 2014. That would be a 15% increase.
There is no, not even a preliminary, breakdown by person type (driver, pedestrian, bicyclist, etc)… which seems odd. VERY preliminary bicyclist traffic fatality data for 2015 can be found at fatality-grid; but those numbers (presently 18 bicyclists) are guaranteed to be low because ADOT hoards the data for themselves, so it’s just whatever I came across in newspapers and word-of-mouth.
Also see report-phx-metro-freeway-crashes-dramatically-increase-in-2015 from a couple of weeks ago ; which noted that the number of crashes on Maricopa county freeways had increase even more dramatically, 23%, year-over-year.
Continue reading “Arizona Motor Vehicle Fatalities increase in 2015”
A Tucson bicyclist was struck from behind and seriously injured 2/14/2016 ~3PM; the driver fled the scene. Both were N/B on S Craycroft Rd near E 25th Street, Tucson. The cyclist was said to have been riding in a bike lane. He was also said to have not been wearing a helmet (no word on whether or not a helmet might have prevented the broken ribs, but I digress).
The suspect was located with the help of some surveillance photos; indicating that Tuscon PD invested significant resources into the investigation. Continue reading “Tucson Bicyclist seriously injured; Driver Flees”