safety – Page 19 – Arizona Bike Law

Multiple Pima Co fatality; Driver arrested

laCanadaPimaCoFatalDui — photo: Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

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”

Wrong-way driver sentenced to 14 years in death of Phoenix fire dispatcher

Stock photo of aftermath of head-on freeway collision. They all look more-or-less the same, so there’s no real need to have one for any particular crash. photo: Arizona Dept of Public Safety

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”

Total VMT and fatalities are up

[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”

Arizona Motor Vehicle Fatalities increase in 2015

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”

Tucson Bicyclist seriously injured; Driver Flees

Troy Gosnell -- photo: Tucson PD — Troy Gosnell — photo: Tucson PD

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”

Woman killed crossing street in Ahwatukee

48th Street, Phoenix, just south of Ray Road.

Saturday night 2/12/2016 ~ 9:45PM. Victim Nina Hale, 68. 48th Street south of Ray Road, Phoenix (the “Ahwatukee” area of Phoenix).

Victim wasn’t in a crosswalk — case closed! I should admit right up front I have no particular idea of what actually happened. It is quite possible, likely even, that the driver was doing nothing legally wrong — i.e. they already said he didn’t seem to be impaired, and it’s likely he was driving within what is considered a reasonable speed — and the victim was doing “everything” legally wrong, because a pedestrian outside of a crosswalk must yield to any vehicles on the roadway. That said, this is going to turn into a rant about high-speed arterial roadway design so beloved by sunbelt traffic engineers… Continue reading “Woman killed crossing street in Ahwatukee”

Report: Phx metro freeway crashes dramatically increase in 2015

The headline is the paper reads Report: DPS, ADOT clearing crashes faster on Maricopa County freeways but a factiod reveals later in the article should have been noted, my emphasis “Despite a 23 percent increase in freeway crashes“. This is a huge year-over-year increase. Why? If you read the actual press releases, it mentions the period is the first nine months of 2014 vs. 2015. yikes.

Continue reading “Report: Phx metro freeway crashes dramatically increase in 2015”

Police: Bicyclist hit/killed crossing road in East Mesa

incident occurred 1/27/2016 ~ 11am. Victim was “crossing” mid-block according to police. Eastern part of city of Mesa; University Drive, between Higley and Greenfield roads.

University Drive, the road the cyclist was attempting to “cross” is a typical high-speed 5 lane arterial.

It’s never completely clear from the descriptions what crossing mid-block means exactly — it should mean away from not only intersections (which was implied by article “There were no crosswalks located in the area”), but also that there the cyclist was not emerging, or entering a driveway (or attempting to).

Bicyclists should be acting as the driver of a vehicle, and therefore should never be “crossing” a road; though of course many do. Continue reading “Police: Bicyclist hit/killed crossing road in East Mesa”

Bicyclist killed in crash on Tucson’s northside

super high speed merge ramp / Pima County

Read the deets on bicycletucson.com

1/24/2016 11:45am Tucson-area (Pima County Sheriff’s dept investigates).

A (somewhat elderly, coincidentally) female bicyclist traveling west on Sunrise Drive was killed by a very elderly motorist who was merging from Skyline Drive and apparently failed to yield. The bicyclists was later identified as 69 y.o. Patricia Lyon-Surrey. Continue reading “Bicyclist killed in crash on Tucson’s northside”

ASU student dies in Tempe road-rage shooting

—
Tempe Police‏@TempePolice

Shooting update: Female driver shot by another female driver after a traffic collision. Injured driver collided w a 3rd car injuring 5 passengers Continue reading “ASU student dies in Tempe road-rage shooting”

Two dead in Loop 303 wrong-way collision

Arizona DPS released the following information regarding double-fatal head-on collision 1/10/2016 in the Surprise / west valley area:

Next of kin notification has been completed. The wrong-way driver of the red/maroon Jeep Cherokee SUV was identified as Robert Andrew Cadman age 32, of Phoenix. The driver of the white Toyota Tundra pickup truck was identified as Christopher John Ruiz Jr. age 32, of Phoenix. Continue reading “Two dead in Loop 303 wrong-way collision”

Owner of Red Alfa found guilty of killing ped on sidewalk

The owner of the red Alfa Romeo convertible involved in the killing of a pedestrian on a Phoenix sidewalk in 2013 was found guilty of negligent homicide and leaving the scene of a fatality caused by the defendant. I have no idea what the defense was; but at the conclusion of the twelve-day trial, the jury also found an aggravating factor of dangerousness. Details at another-ped-gets-whacked-on-phoenix-sidewalk
Continue reading “Owner of Red Alfa found guilty of killing ped on sidewalk”

Tucson Bicyclist killed crossing Wetmore Road

This showed up on review of the 2015 ASDM data, although I had missed it at the time. The only news I could find list just vague information, and nothing about how the crash occurred.

Crash Report

ADOT incident=3044756

12/30/2015, 9:20pm(dark). Bicyclist was southbound CROSSING ROAD, and crash was NOT_AT_INTERSECTION / NOT_JUNCTION_RELATED (i.e mid-block). Bicyclist was struck in the two-way turn lane.

Driver eastbound in LANE1 and was faulted for UNSAFE LANE CHANGE (presumably into the two-way turn lane).

Confusing. Surprising it was faulted to the motorist, and that there was NO IMPROPER to bicyclist.

Bicyclist dies on scene after being struck on northwest side
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) – … the incident happened around 9:20 p.m at the intersection of Wetmore and Flowing Wells… The driver remained on scene and is cooperating with authorities… Pima County Sheriff’s are investigating the incident.

Out of control on Warner-Elliot Loop

Aftermath of car-house crash. Jicarilla at Warner-Elliot Loop, Phoenix

Yikes

11/29/2015 Sunday morningtime. Jicarilla just off of Warner-Elliot loop, Phoenix/Ahwatukee. This is a pic of the backyard/patio of the house on the SE corner. Continue reading “Out of control on Warner-Elliot Loop”

Bicyclist killed in Phx semi truck right-hook crash

[synopsis: this is not a “classic” right hook; the cyclist appears to have been riding on the sidewalk and entered into the crosswalk (or “just south of the crosswalk”) just before the collision with a right-turning semi]

11/24/2015 0540am. Phoenix police say bicyclist Krystle Ann Klain, 33, was riding eastbound on Glendale Avenue, approaching 43rd Ave where she collided with a right-turning semi-truck driver.

The news reports don’t mention if the bicyclist was riding in the roadway, or on the sidewalk/crosswalk. There doesn’t appear to be a Bike Lane there, which would lead me to speculate it was a sidewalk thing. (the crash database says the cyclist was in the crosswalk, the crash narrative is different: it states ROADWAY, but goes on to say “due to report management system limitations box 24 [bike/ped location] was not accessible to check unknown location for the bicyclist (Unit 1) as it is undetermined if she was in the crosswalk or immediately south of it”), and in to report box 24 has no entry. Continue reading “Bicyclist killed in Phx semi truck right-hook crash”