safety – Page 20 – Arizona Bike Law

Head-on collision sends 3 to hospital

Cornville Road Head-on collision sends 3 to hospital; just coincidentally this is the same road and very near where cyclist Ethelyn Hartline was killed in 2014 when a motorist failed to overtake her safely.

The driver who police say caused the crash was cited for “Failure to Drive in the Proper Lane, and Causing Serious Physical Injury during a Moving Violation”. That second part would have to be 28-672, a minor criminal misdemeanor that has penalties that can include license suspension, and traffic survival school, as well as a small amount of restitution. I’m unclear what is particular statute the proper lane business refers to — 28-672 has a specific list of enabling violations. It would most likely be 28-729(1) which requires not moving from a lane unless it can be done safely. Crossing a double-yellow is also illegal (statute?), but that’s not a ‘672-enabler.

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Police: Driver in fatal Phoenix hit-run was impaired

All according to Phoenix police, the driver:

Fled from a fatal crash that he clearly did not cause — this is a Class 3 Felony 28-663 (the pedestrian “intentionally walked into traffic” after an unrelated altercation/incident of some sort)
When caught, said he wasn’t their guy… “he denied driving on Indian School Road and hitting the pedestrian”… “saying the damage to his vehicle was caused while he was pulling into the parking lot”.
By way of explanation the driver “… said he was evading police officers and driving fast because he knew he had been drinking and had a suspended license”.
Blew a 0.186 BAC in a PBT. Thus the aggravation part of the DUI. One imagines there was then a blood draw. Above 0.15 would qualify for extreme DUI; however due to have an already suspended license bit, he’s looking at aggravated DUI/lic susp, 28-1383, a class 4 felony.

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MCSO: Impaired, speeding driver kills 2 in Avondale

Two people were killed in a crash early Sunday morning near Avondale Boulevard and Maricopa 85. (Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office) — Not much left (Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)

Weekend roundup of drivers behaving badly in the Phoenix metro area; it must have been a rough Saturday night, 4 dead in 3 incidents early AM hours of Sunday 11/8/2015: Police say a speeding & impaired driver rear ended and killed 2 motorists in Avondale. Phoenix police says a pedestrian is dead after apparently intentionally stepping in front of a moving car — the driver, of course, hit-and-ran, police caught him soon after and say he appeared impaired. In the third story a driver crossed over and struck another vehicle head on; killing her. Continue reading “MCSO: Impaired, speeding driver kills 2 in Avondale”

Another Phoenix Ped killed on sidewalk

635823235910543403-Rudy-Loyoza- — Police are seeking Rudy Loyoza Jr.

Oct 20, 2015 Pedestrian fatality. According to police, the driver was speeding (“at speeds over 100 mph”) and lost control, crossed the center line, jumped curb and drove up on sidewalk; hit-and-run of course. Yes, again, see another-ped-gets-whacked-on-phoenix-sidewalk. This obviously happens regularly… Seriously, how often does this happen? Police are seeking Rudy Loyoza Jr., the owner of the vehicle, in connection with the incident.

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Truck driver get 1 year for fatal muscle relaxer crash

mercedesSuvI17 — wreckage of Mercedes SUV (Photo: David Wallace/The Republic)

The original story is below. Plea deal dropped the manslaughter and two aggravated assault charges (these are *very* serious felonies, F2 & 3) in exchange for a guilty plea to endangerment (a *very* minor felony, F6). Exactly how the prosecutor cooks up these deals is unknown but it seems hard to understand how this is, if not reckless manslaughter, at least negligent homicide. Continue reading “Truck driver get 1 year for fatal muscle relaxer crash”

Pickup driver loses control, kills bicyclist

10/29/2015 ~ just before midnight. 35th Avenue near Montebello Avenue, Phoenix. Victim 42 y.o. male Hussein Yunus. Driver was taken into custody, name not released, and later released. This is a residential area, with residences fronting a “busy” street, 35th Ave. The “pickup truck left the roadway and hit him. A witness said the bike rider flew about 100 feet…The driver was taken into custody. Investigators are looking into intoxication as a factor and are awaiting results from a toxicology analysis”. The news report video said something to the effect that “police believe impairment was involved but not necessarily alcohol”. Continue reading “Pickup driver loses control, kills bicyclist”

Wrong way August I-17 pickup driver

For much more on dangerous, impaired (mentally, disoriented, or via chemicals/alcohol) see wrong-way. They drive among us. One of my fears is the incidents are being treated as though the problem is with not enough signs on freeway. These are dangerous, criminal in most cases, drivers who are out driving around, who can (and do) cause all sorts of mayhem.

News story about the aftermath of Aug 22, 2015 wrong-way pickup truck driver, 48-year-old Timothy Harjo of Wickenburg. Was driving ~ 70mph north in the southbound lanes of I-17 around 5:45am ~ 12 mile from Sunset Point. DPS Trooper Jeremy Barr acted heroically to essentially crash into the perpetrator, averting what could easily resulted in a major disaster. Continue reading “Wrong way August I-17 pickup driver”

Out of control drivers kill man on Phoenix sidewalk

Yes, another sidewalk death caused by out of control drivers; Sunday 9/27/2015 — Seriously, how often does stuff like this happen?

According to the story, this was an apparent left turn 2-vehicle collision that sent two out-of-control drivers all over the place. The man who died, Juan Mena-Brito, is credited for shoving his wife to safety just before getting mowed down. 43rd Ave and Peoria, Phoenix, AZ. Continue reading “Out of control drivers kill man on Phoenix sidewalk”

Tucson-area Bike Lane rear-end fatal

9/29/2015 05:25am 30 y.o. Daniel Wilson was struck and killed “riding east in the bike lane of Orange Grove Road approaching La Cholla Boulevard when he was struck from behind by an eastbound passenger car merging into the right turn lane,” Casa Adobes, AZ; apparently Pima Co Sheriff investigates there. [note this is not a “criss-cross” design; the BL projects straight ahead]

It would have been dark at 525a , and police confirmed the cyclist had a tailight, sunrise wasn’t until 6:16am this day.

If you click thru to the street view above, you’ll see the area has two thru lanes, a bike lane, and a very long right-turn-only lane. It’s not clear exactly where along the approach the collision occurred.

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Driver charged w/hit-and-run in Chandler ped fatality

Hit-and-run suspect Wanda House. photo: MSCO

[UPDATES plea deal January 2017, then imprisoned due to probation violation Sept 2017]

Driver Wanda Snow House has been charged with hit-and-run in connection with the death of a pedestrian. According to police she “was driving in a bicycle lane on Dobson Road near West Canyon Way on Jan. 14 2015 when she hit a pedestrian, identified as Frances Johnston”. Continue reading “Driver charged w/hit-and-run in Chandler ped fatality”

Tucson bicyclist dies after falling

According to a TPD press release, e-bicyclist 49-year-old Joseph Brzuchalski died after wobbling, falling, and hitting his head. The incident occurred 9/21/2015 ~ 1730, and police believe alcohol was invovled. The press release goes to great lengths to say this incident did not involve train tracks.

In any event, I’m labeling this as non-traffic because

an electric bike is a motorized bicycle and, as such, does not “count” as a bicyclist fatality — its operator is a “DRIVER” and not a “PEDALCYCLIST”. And/or:
Traffic crashes that do not involve any motor vehicles do not “count” as traffic crashes

In other words, I’m not expecting this to show up on state or federal traffic crash stats.

Continue reading “Tucson bicyclist dies after falling”

Pickup driver plows into Police car; 2 officers seriously injured

Police work entails risk, and the risk from a traffic crash is a leading cause of death among officers; e.g. see more-police-killed-by-traffic-than-guns Continue reading “Pickup driver plows into Police car; 2 officers seriously injured”

74 year-old cyclist struck, killed on Tucson eastside

9/16/2015 74 y.o. bicyclist John Venneman was killed as he cycled north on Craycroft Rd at the intersection of 22nd st. Police said he had a red light, and was struck by an eastbound driver. “Police say drivers in two of the eastbound 22nd Street lanes of traffic spotted the cyclist riding in the crosswalk against the light, but a driver in the lane closest to the median did not see Venneman and struck him.” Continue reading “74 year-old cyclist struck, killed on Tucson eastside”

Driver strikes 4 in crosswalk; flees

Incident 9/5/2015

Man accused of hitting four U of A students faces 9 counts … Tucson Police believes Gerald Taylor, 45, ran through the crosswalk and hit four of the five students crossing. Investigators revealed that Taylor did not stop at the scene and continued driving. About two hours later, he turned himself in. Three children were in the car with him when the incident happened. One student is in the hospital with life threatening injuries. Two suffered serious injuries and one had minor injuries…

Apparent hit and run bicyclist fatality in AJ

[ Update Sept 3: they seem to be implying this was not a vehicle involved, there was no hit-and-run, thus this was not a traffic crash, so I added the non-traffic tag, and am removing the hit-and-run tag. There is some sort of fairly deep ditch/canal(?) running in the median]

Sept 2, 2015. Police were notified of a dead body and nearby mangled bicycle in the median of Apache Trail near Ocotillo 8:30am. Though this is apparent hit-and-run traffic fatality, it’s not clear and the investigation will have to confirm.

Apache Trail near Ocotillo road has three lanes in each direction plus a BL. East and West are separated by a VERY wide median (I see ~ 65′ on google maps). Continue reading “Apparent hit and run bicyclist fatality in AJ”