safety – Page 30 – Arizona Bike Law

Mesa Police seek driver of white SUV in fatal hit-and-run

[Update: McIver sentenced in August 2014 after pleading guilty last month; short story is 5 years prison for manslaughter plus 4 years probation. All CR2014000974 case minutes (sentencing minute is dated 8/22/2104). Also see Bar Receipts used to Indict… , which is interesting in that the case was proven with circumstantial evidence of drunkeness; though it was obviously not stron enough to seek 2nd degree murder charges, which is routine for drunk drivers who negligently kill someone. Thus the plea deal to manslaughter. Also MCAO issued a press release, sortof unusual.]

[ Update: SUSPECT ARRESTED 8/20/2013 abc15.com “Mesa police Sgt. Tony Landato said 36-year-old Matthew S. McIver is being booked on manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal accident” ]

azcentral.com updated 8/14/2013 ~ 1PM Mesa police identified the victim of a fatal hit-and-run collision as Richard B. Welck, 68, who was riding a tricycle when he was apparently struck from behind by an SUV on Tuesday night. Welck was riding east in the 8000 block of East Ray Road at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday when he was struck from behind by the SUV, which also was headed east, according to Mesa police. Sgt. Tony Landato, a police spokesman, said evidence at the scene suggests that the SUV is possibly a white 2003-2005 Saturn Vue. Landato said police made an “exhaustive’’ check of the area but were unable to locate the SUV. Police are asking the public for help in identifying the vehicle and the driver. Anyone with information is asked to call police at (480) 644-2211.

The area where Welck was killed by the driver has a particularly wide designated bike lane; this is tagged “drifted”.

myfoxphoenix.com: more info at this news story. The victim was a 68 year old male. He was riding an adult tricycle blue in color.
IF YOU COME ACROSS THE SUV, call the Mesa Police at (480) 644-2211 or by calling Silent Witness at (480) WITNESS, you can remain anonymous

azcentral.com: Police say a bicyclist in his mid-60s was killed Tuesday night (8/13/2013) in a hit-and-run collision in Mesa. Mesa police Sgt. Tony Landato said police are looking for a white SUV with front-end damage, possibly a Saturn Vue, in connection with the incident near Sossoman and Ray roads…

I’m adding the circumstantial tag, this is a bit of a twist, it’s about how they got him to plead guilty to manslaughter, using video surveillance of bars he had been at, and receipts. rather than direct proof (e.g. field sobriety tests, blood test, etc):

Craig Penrod, a veteran East Valley attorney who represents defendants accused of driving under the influence, said there have been past attempts by police to reconstruct the actions of defendants but he has not heard of police using an estimated blood alcohol content level in the past.

“You would need a lot of details to reconstruct a BAC without any sort of chemical test,’’ Penrod said. “It sounds pretty far-fetched to me.’’

“I have never heard of them putting together a BAC based on circumstantial evidence,’’ he said.

Phoenix police, however, were able to obtain enough evidence to arrest two defendants who also are accused of fleeing the scene after they struck and killed victims. Witnesses, a surveillance video obtained from a liquor store, cell phone records and physical evidence eventually linked Jesus Cabrera Molina to the May 19 death of Officer Daryl Raetz, who was processing a DUI case at 51st and Cambridge avenues when he was run down. Cabrera also was accused of manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatality.

Christopher Chevalier was accused of the same charges, plus tampering with evidence, in the March 5 death of Anna Blaze, who was struck by an Alfa Romeo while she walked on a sidewalk with a friend at Northern Avenue and 11th Street.

…

Helmet safety claims overstated

Thanks to WABA : “The federal government is withdrawing its long-standing claim that bicycle helmets prevent 85% of head injuries, in response to a petition filed by WABA under the federal Data Quality Act.”

Congratulations to WABA (a Washington, DC, Area Bike advocacy group) for holding the government to account. While this, of course, is not going to end the “helmet wars”, it will hopefully move us back towards evidence-based investigation of bicycling transportation safety.

The particular US government agencies involved are the CDC and NHTSA who confirmed by letter they will stop disseminating the oft-quoted 85% figure. The NHSTA will, however, continue to claim helmets are “the single most important way to prevent head injury resulting from a bicycle crash”.

The WABA article is, by the way, a good explanation of what can go wrong with case-control type statistics that often are the output of public health community researchers. These types of claims are often(always?) behind the most stunning soundbytes, see e.g. cycle-tracks-are-NINE-TIMES-safer-than-roads.

Speaking of helmets, there was a recent long article in bicycling magazine; which is really interesting stuff about the current CPSC-mandated safety standards might be limiting advances that would allow different (different than the omnipresent EPS) materials, and better protection, especially from concussion.

Bike Share / CitiBike and helmets

One doesn’t imagine that bikeshare patrons often have a helmet with them, I didn’t when i visited Madison, WI summer of 2014 and partook of B Cycle there.

This is schadenfreude, but apparently last year Prof. Pucher predicted (mentioned below in a NYPost opinion piece) that CitiBike could cause bicyclist fatalities to triple in NYC. There apparently were ~ 20/year in the pre-citibike period. Now thefirst full year crash results are in and there have been zero fatals among CitiBike riders (in 15Million miles of useage!), and a total of 100 crash reports, i.e. a rate of 150,000 miles per incident…

Citi Bike ‘heading’ for a fall July 1, 2013
Mayor Bloomberg is often portrayed as an overprotective nanny, restricting cigarettes and soda sizes. So what about a bike-share program that lets novice riders loose on New York’s busy streets without helmets?
About 20 cyclists are killed in accidents in New York City each year, but Rutgers University Professor John Pucher says the number of injuries and fatalities could triple in the Citi Bike program’s first year. So far, there have been reports of only three minor accidents involving Citi Bikes.
Bloomberg spokesman John McCarthy says that the city has created hundreds of miles of bike lanes to protect cyclists and that enforcing helmet use would be impractical.
Under state law, only delivery riders and children under 14 are required to wear helmets.

Moving forward in time, NYC as a whole in 2015 reported 14 cyclist-MV fatalities, down from 20 in 2014.

WSJ editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz in an oddly-vitriolic tirade coins the term “all powerful bicycle lobby”; and mentions citibike may times in her bizzarre rant dated 5/13/2013. You just can’t make stuff like this up, here are my favorite excerpts:

“…New York’s best neighborhoods are absolutely begrimed by these citibikes…” “moderator: It’s not just shocking, it’s (presumably citibike racks) also a fire hazard in some cases the fire trucks can’t get into subway stations” “moderator (quoting car-ped crash stats): so is there a chance the danger is overblown? Rabinowitz: oh well look, before this (before, apparently referring to before citibike) it was dangerous, before this ever citizen knew, who is in any way senescent, that the most important danger (presumably to peds) in the city is not the yellow cab but the bicyclists who veer in and out…”.

She’s also mad that cabs have plaques admonishing passengers to not open their doors into traffic (which, i imagine is a legal requirement; it is in AZ).

Update on Citibike 6/12/2017: The first ever CitiBike rider fatality has been reported. CitiBike has been in operation in NYC since May 2013. Unhelmeted, it was dutifully reported. No word as to whether a helmet would have prevented the rider’s death. He was crushed to death by a 20+ ton bus. Police have said the cyclist “swerved”, however Gothamist reported surveillance video that surfaced later shows otherwise. NYPD have a track record of favoring motorists in bike-MV, or bike-ped collisions, e.g. Felix Coss was killed walking in a marked crosswalk with a green light, and NYPD says the pedestrian assumes the risk. Update 10/2018; the bus driver was convicted at trial of a misdemeanor and a violation,. See remarks at crash-not-accident. Video depicted the bicyclist going straight ahead (no swerve — where did that come from, did the driver lie to police?)

Divvy / Chicago Bikeshare

A Feb 2015 article in dnainfo.com/chicago , my emphasis:”Divvy users have logged more than 3.2 million rides in the last 2½ years, and the small number of injuries suffered by riders may surprise skeptics, particularly because helmets aren’t required or even included with the rentals. But the Divvy data lines up with national statistics showing bike-sharing cyclists are generally safe, or at least lucky” …Of the 18 reported incidents involving Divvy bikes, one involved a cyclist hitting a pothole, and another person suffered scrapes when the chain fell off a bike”. Lucky? really? 3.2 million miles of luck? I don’t think they listed a tally, they mentioned a couple of what would be called “incapacitating” injuries; the most serious involved an apparently impaired divvy bicyclist.

In any event 3.2million/18 calculates out to one incident per 180,000 miles.

July 1, 2016 — Divvy Bike Rider Killed in Avondale Crash ID’d; Believed to be First US Bike-Sharing Death. Victim is 25 y.o. Virginia Murray. The article describes a classic right hook — according to the article there is surveillance video that showed the rider riding up the right side of a stopped flatbed truck (waiting at a signal I imagine); the truck then turns right, and collides with the bicyclist who was also turning (or intending to turn?) right. According the to the article the rider was wearing a helmet (which should be irrelevant, she was presumably crushed to death by the truck) but for the purposes here with bikeshares and helmets, I mention it. According to the article there are a lot of “accidents” at this corner, and mentions — twice — “There are no bike lanes at the busy intersection”… underlying a misunderstanding of crash modes and right hooks. Bike lanes, if anything, exacerbate right hooks. A longer article on chi.streetsblog.org refers to the video, but hasn’t see it. A Chicago Bike lawyer has a description illinoisbicyclelaw.com, but it sounds as though he hasn’t seen the video, either; he describes it as a standard right-hook and quotes a local ordinance stating an “overtaking” driver must yield to any bicyclist in such a situation (but was the truck driver overtaking?).

Phoenix / GRiD Bikeshare

A tidbit of very preliminary information was in councilwoman Thelda William’s newsletter:

Also, in November 2014, the GR:D Bike Share Program was launched. From January 1 to September 30, 2015, there have been 28,228 trips taken by 5,478 riders who have ridden a total of 48,583 miles. Since system launch, there have been very few operational problems, no bicycles have been lost or stolen, and there have been no reported traffic collisions involving GR:D bicyclists. Service continues to improve and expand.

BikeShare in general

newish (march 2016) study commissioned by CalDOT Bikesharing and Bicycle Safety, from the abstract, my emphasis:

Bikesharing has some qualities that appear inherently unsafe for bicyclists. Most prominently, helmet usage is
documented to be quite low in most regions… Finally, researchers conducted an analysis of bicycle and bikesharing activity data, as well as bicycle and bikesharing collisions to evaluate injury rates associated with bikesharing when compared with benchmarks of personal bicycling. The data analysis found that collision and injury rates for bikesharing are lower than previously computed rates for personal bicycling…

BHSI

This tidbit was interesting, I was unaware the BHSI was a sub-association of WABA, and interesting take about the slowing trend:

In 2013 the pace of new helmet laws has slowed to almost zero. Attempts to extend laws to cover adults have been unsuccessful. Urban riders are increasingly questioning the need for helmets, and certainly the need for helmet laws. WABA, our parent organization, has taken a position opposing the extension of the Maryland state helmet law to adults. A pendulum is swinging. We expect it to swing back eventually as injuries show up, but the positive experience with shared bicycle programs has raised basic questions about the need for helmets, and younger riders are reconsidering. We regard all that as a fashion trend and remain convinced that bike riders need helmets.

And their more general approach to mandatory helmet laws:

We have always been a lot more enthusiastic about promoting voluntary use of helmets than promoting laws, and it would appear from the list above that most U.S. states and localities are too. Even seatbelt laws that have been around for a long time are mostly secondary offense laws limiting enforcement to occasions when a driver has been stopped for something else. Helmet laws can be useful, but given the problems with enforcing them they will probably not work well in most places until more riders have accepted the need for wearing a helmet. So we favor a stronger push for voluntary usage than for passing new helmet laws, and our Web site has always reflected that attitude.

Some California Data

In spring of 2015, CA floated a mandatory helmet law SB192; calbike.org put together some stats mostly about how rates of cycling over relatively large amounts of time have increased quite a bit; i.e. injury rate has dropped significantly. The bill ultimately got amended to replace the mandate with something about safety studies of helmet use.

Netherlands

It has been observed that Dutch cyclists have a very low rate of helmet usage, and at the same time enjoy a relatively low level of injuries and fatalities per distance traveled. See e.g. Pucher 2008 Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany : quoting Dutch Bicycle Council figures “in the Netherlands, with the safest cycling of any country, less than 1% of adult cyclists wear helmets, and even among children, only 3–5% wear helmets”. Among mode-share advocates, it is believed that mandatory, or even high levels of, helmet use are detrimental to mode-share; there are various empirical and psychological explanations for this. With this grain of salt, consider this Dutch paper:

Overestimation of the effectiveness of the bicycle helmet by the use of odds ratios by Theo Zeegers presented at International Cycling Safety Conference 2015 concluded “Any case-control study in which the control is formed by hospitalized bicyclists is unreliable and likely to overestimate the effectiveness of the bicycle helmet”

Onestreet has a nice collection of factoids about the The Problem with Bicycle Helmets, and why “dangerising” bicycling is counter-productive.

Collision Manner

[Warning/correction not yet made: in the table below where it says MV-only, that’s not quite correct, it’s really incidents where no pedalscylists are involved. The MV-only calculations should also exclude pedestrians; this can be accomplished by saying u.eUnitType LIKE ‘PED%’ In the query below i corrected it but didn’t correct the table; the percentages don’t really change since there are relatively few ped crashes ]

Here is a breakdown of Collision Manner, and rates, for MV collisions (i.e. one or more MV, and not involving a ped or bicyclists) compared to bike-MV collisions.

The megatrends are that rear end collisions are, by far, the predominant manner of collision for MVonly crashes; wheres for bike-MV crashes this manner is quite infrequent — almost twelve times more frequent. For bike-MV crashes, the predominant manner is angle, i.e. so called “turning and crossing” movements (although left turn is broken out as a separate manner).

The 38% rate of REAR END crashes for MVs actually understates the rate — if you back out the number of SINGLE VEHICLE crashes; you see that nearly half of all multi-car collisions are REAR END(!). 38,499/(101,055 – 18,647) = 47%. Inattention? Does this mean that motorists actually are more attentive to same-direction traffic when it’s a bicyclist, compared to another motorist? hmmm.

+------------------------------+-------+--------+------+--------+-------------+
| eCollisionManner             | MVonly| MVrate |bikeMV|bikerate|MV:bike ratio|
+------------------------------+-------+--------+------+--------+-------------+
| REAR_TO_REAR                 |   287 | 0.0028 | NULL |   NULL |        NULL |
| UNKNOWN_99                   |   859 | 0.0085 |   40 | 0.0189 |  0.44973545 |
| REAR_TO_SIDE                 |   895 | 0.0089 |   11 | 0.0052 |  1.71153846 |
| SIDESWIPE_OPPOSITE_DIRECTION |  1244 | 0.0123 |   46 | 0.0217 |  0.56682028 |
| HEAD_ON                      |  1438 | 0.0142 |   45 | 0.0212 |  0.66981132 |
| OTHER_97                     |  3160 | 0.0313 |  404 | 0.1905 |  0.16430446 |
| SIDESWIPE_SAME_DIRECTION     | 10727 | 0.1062 |  124 | 0.0585 |  1.81538462 |
| LEFT_TURN                    | 11888 | 0.1176 |  189 | 0.0891 |  1.31986532 |
| ANGLE_FRONT_TO_SIDE          | 13411 | 0.1327 | 1194 | 0.5629 |  0.23574347 |
| SINGLE_VEHICLE               | 18647 | 0.1845 | NULL |   NULL |        NULL |
| REAR_END                     | 38499 | 0.3810 |   68 | 0.0321 | 11.86915888 |
+------------------------------+-------+--------+------+--------+-------------+
total num of MVonly crashes = 101,055.  total num of bike-MV crashes = 2,121
source: 2012 ASDM

Continue reading “Collision Manner”

Woman dies after minivan crashes into Tucson 7-Eleven

A shopper (pedestrian?) was killed while shopping inside a Tucson 7-Eleven (7/7/2013). “The driver, 52-year-old Hassan Madex was cited for one count of causing serious injury or death by a moving violation, a misdemeanor offense”. That would be 28-672, this is a very low-level misdemeanor.

Seriously? Inside the store? How often does stuff like this happen? (pretty often, follow this link to my long and growing list of these “freak accidents” that aren’t so unusual when it comes to automobiles

I wonder if it happening on private property will have any (legal) ramifications? I guess the incident clearly began on the roadway so I suspecet it won’t have any impact.

Continue reading “Woman dies after minivan crashes into Tucson 7-Eleven”

Tucson bicyclist killed in collision with Semi

19-year-old bicyclist Albert Rich and the driver of a right-turning semi collided westbound Broadway Blvd at Campbell Ave, Tucson; Wed 7/3/2013 evening. A so-called “right hook” collision.

This comes on the heels of a ped struck in a Tucson crosswalk last week (June 28, 2013) but died the same day as Rich. “Eddie Sagastume was walking across East Grant Road at North Arcadia Avenue about 8 p.m. June 28… The intersection was lit and there was a marked crosswalk, police said.” azstarnet.com. Continue reading “Tucson bicyclist killed in collision with Semi”

Pedestrian struck by vehicle on sidewalk dies

Another, seriously how often does this happen?

Woman killed by truck identified

A pickup truck full of teenagers struck and killed a 23-year-old woman named Jackie Ruiz Saturday (2/2/2013) afternoon as she was walking on the sidewalk near 19th Ave and Thunderbird Road. Police say the 1997 Dodge 2500 pickup up truck was swerving before it left the roadway and went up on the sidewalk hitting Ruiz and then barreled into an apartment patio wall…The driver was identified as an 18 year old male. He had three other teens with him, said Phoenix Police Sgt. Steve Martos…

Think you’re safe in your car?

Man arrested in I-17 fatal crash in north Phoenix

Police have arrested a man suspected of killing a 61-year-old man in a high-speed collision on Interstate 17 in north Phoenix on Monday night (6/17/2013), a Department of Public Safety official said Tuesday…. Police say the white sedan was driven by Vick A. House (the victim)… Police are not releasing the name of the suspect yet.

…

Car plows into bus stop killing 1; DUI likely, police say

Really? Oh yeah, and of course it was hit-and-run. Oh, yeah, witnesses say the driver ran a red light. incident occurred 5/13/2013 around 0400.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Car-plows-into-bus-stop-1-dead-2-suspects-on-the-loose-207185831.html

Dead ped at a bus stop? Seriously, how often do thinkgs like this happen? Pretty often apparently. And, oh yeah, in March a suspected dui driver slammed into a Phoenix bus stop and killed 2 people — at least that guy didn’t (or couldn’t) hit-and-run.

Oh well back to the present case, excerpts:

One person is dead, a second is injured and a third is in police custody after a car plowed into a Phoenix bus stop before sunrise Monday. Police believe the driver, a 22-year-old Hispanic woman, was impaired at the time of the wreck…. According to police, a black sedan was heading north on 27th Avenue when the driver ran a red light. She swerved to avoid two cars, veered off the road and slammed into the bus stop by the 7-Eleven at Indian School Road… Harry Cleveland, 50, was sitting on the bus bench when the car hit it. He took the brunt of the impact and died about an hour later at a local hospital. A 20-year-old man who had been sitting on another bench, was taken to a local hospital, as well. His condition was not immediately available. A 19-year-old woman who also was waiting at the bus stop managed to dodge the out-of-control car and avoid injury…. Witnesses told investigators that the driver, now identified as Elsa Olivares, and the passenger ran away from the scene. Police checked the vehicle’s registration and went to the address listed. While en route to that apartment, police received a call from Olivares. After telling them she was involved in the crash, she turned herself in.

Update

Late May, the suspect entered not-guilty pleas to all charges, the usual litany: 2nd Degree Murder, agg assault, endangerment, leaving the scene of a fatal. You can read all about it case lookup (or here at Maricopa County Superior Court directly) St of AZ Vs. Elsa Priscila Olivares CR-2013421459; case minutes. State’s Attorney is Rebecca Kennelly. Defendant’s Attorney is presently Jesus Acosta (i believe appointed?). This is a “complex case”. Trial is currently set for mid-January 2014.

Formal list of charges:

13-1103 (F2) MANSLAUGHTER 5/13/2013
13-1204 (F3) AGGRAVATED ASSAULT 5/13/2013
13-1201 (F6) ENDANGERMENT 5/13/2013
28-661 (F2) HIT AND RUN W/DEATH/INJURY

Arrest made in boy’s hit-and-run parking lot death

[Update: Driver Mabior Ding, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years supervised probation, as part of a plea deal; charges of manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal collision kpho.com. There is/was some suggestion or confusion that leaving the scene cannot apply to private property?? Also notable, this incident does NOT appear in official traffic records; perhaps because it was private property(?)]

Phew, the horrendous news just keeps on coming
An 11-year old boy was killed May 25(?), 2013. The driver initially tried to help the victim, but then fled the scene. The boy was walking with his mother in the an apartment complex parking lot when he became pinned to a cinder block wall by a driver backing up. Killed while walking in a parking lot? Seriously, how often does stuff like this happen? Continue reading “Arrest made in boy’s hit-and-run parking lot death”

Phoenix bicyclist killed by hit-and-run driver Friday

Friday evening, 5/24/2013, suspect and vehicle are still at large as of Monday morning. Victim Norberto Martinez. Continue reading “Phoenix bicyclist killed by hit-and-run driver Friday”

Rate of bicycle-related fatalities significantly lower in states with helmet laws?

Annoyingly I cannot find the actual article by searching The Journal of Pediatrics website jpeds.com/search/quick so we may never know… Apparently they’ve taken the tactic of flooding the internet with press releases that don’t even mention the name of the article.

In any event I am having a hard time seeing that helmet use data is well-reported, please see data-collection-of-bicyclist-helmet-use-in-crashes; if the data is not accurately collected and reported, studies such as these that simply mine FARS data seem really suspect.

From a press release (my emphasis): “Existing research shows that bicyclists who wear helmets have an 88 percent lower risk of brain injury, but researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital found that simply having bicycle helmet laws in place showed a 20 percent decrease in deaths and injuries for children younger than 16 who were in bicycle-motor vehicle collisions”

I think helmets are great; but it seems to me they are being over-sold. Here there is a general claim of an enormous reduction in TBI, and then further that there is a modest safety bump in JUST HAVING A LAW. hmmm. so many questions.

what does rate mean? my guess is it’s population based; it would be far better if it were exposure based. I wouldn’t be surprised to see pediatric exposure has been declining. The study I noted at effects-of-bicycle-helmet-laws-on-childrens-injuries from National Bureau of Economic Research made more sense to me: helmet laws = less cycling = lower “rates” of death/injury mostly because most people figure rates based on population and not exposure
obviously, what’s really more interesting is compliance rate, and not just whether or not a state has a law. plus how do they handle local laws(e.g. tucson and a few other Arizona cities have a minor helmet law, though there is no state law).
helmet data in FARS; the last time i remember checking , there were a *lot* of “unknowns” in the helmet yes/no box. This should be pretty easy to check, at least for 2010 and 11 now that I have my own FARS database up and running.
Another study out of Canada and published in BMJ found helmet laws had little to no effect; what they describe as an underlying baseline effect. “… the incremental contribution of provincial helmet legislation to reduce hospital admissions for head injuries seems to have been minimal.“

In case you were wondering here is the list of Arizona cities/jurisdictions that have MHLs: mandatory-bicycle-helmet-laws-in-arizona

Bicyclist killed in Tucson hit-and-run was SunTran driver

05/23/2013 Bicyclist John Akers was struck and killed at the intersection of Mission and Irvington Road; this is near but outside of Tucson, and so Pima County Sheriff’s Office handled the investigation. The driver fled the scene. Akers was on his way to work around 3:30a as a SunTran driver. Deputies located a suspect vehicle and a suspect was arrested a few hours later. The bicyclist was northbound, and the motorist was eastbound — this is a signalized intersection. Bicyclist killed in Tucson hit-and-run was SunTran driver

tucsonvelo.com has reported that “Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy and BAC liaison Ryan Roher said via email that alcohol was involved. He said the suspect left the scene, but was later apprehended by Pima County deputies. According to Roher the cyclist was wearing a helmet and witnesses indicate the cyclist was riding ‘within the law.’ ”

The Criminal Case

Pima County Superior Court case CR20132547

UPDATED Jan 2014 tucsonvelo.com: “The driver who hit and killed John Akers, a SunTran driver who was cycling to work, has been sentenced to 15 years in jail, the Arizona Daily Star is reporting … Enrique F. Hernandez plead guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter, leaving the scene of a crash that caused a death as well as driving under the influence”…”Hernandez, 25, ran a stop light at Mission and Irvington roads where he plowed into John Akers, who was riding his bike to work. Hernandez then fled the scene”

If this bit from the azstar is correct: “Hernandez was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the manslaughter charge and five years for leaving the scene of a deadly accident. Those prison terms will be served consecutively.” It is the ONLY sentence I’ve EVER seen where prison time will actually be served for hit-and-run.

Phx PD Officer’s SUV hit by red-light runner

A Phoenix police officer was injured in a collision with red-light-runner at Sweetwater and 43rd Ave. The red-light-runner was described only as “elderly”. As a result of the collision, both vehicles careened out of control up and over the sidewalks, one striking a tree and another a wall. Although there were three fairly minor injuries, it appears serious injury (or fatality) was only avoided by a stroke of luck that no one was walking there. How often do cars drive up over the sidewalk?

azcentral.com news report:
A car reportedly ran a red light and slammed into a Phoenix police SUV, leaving the officer and two others injured Thursday morning, according to authorities. The police SUV was heading east on Sweetwater Avenue about 9:30 a.m., said Lt. Ben Leuschner of the Phoenix Police Department. The car, with an elderly couple inside, was going south on 43rd Avenue. The car ran a red light and slammed into the police SUV, according to police. The car ended up hitting a wall and the police SUV was pushed off the side of the road. All three people had to be extricated from their vehicles. The officer’s injuries weren’t considered serious. The conditions of the people in the car weren’t immediately available.

I don’t know anything about that area of town, however, I will comment that Sweetwater looks like a nice calm road, whereas 43rd Ave is a standard city of Phoenix car-sewer.

Tragedies just keep on coming

… A few days later on May 19th, Phoenix police officer Daryl Raetz was killed while “processing a DUI suspect near 51st and Cambridge avenues when he was struck by a green Ford Expedition, which then fled the scene”. azcentral.com. The story doesn’t give much detail, i would assume from what was presented he was a pedestrian.

Continue reading “Phx PD Officer’s SUV hit by red-light runner”

Casa Grande PD nabs hit and run suspect

[ 11/28/2016 complaint: EXCEED SPEED LIMIT BY 20/45 MPH, plead guilty. see below. Was Wuertz speeding when he hit and nearly killed Brennan and then fled the scene in 2013? Is he still on probation? ]

[Mar 2014 — plea / plea agreement dated 2/24/2014 The plea stipulates no jail; Wuertz pleas guilty to endangerment, a very low level felony (it even automatically conditionally converts to a misdemeanor). More importantly there is no hit-and-run conviction. That charge, besides being a serious felony, would have resulted in a 5 to 10 year driver license revocation — though the deal does state that “pursuant to 28-3304 the defendant’s license shall be revoked”. Though I’m not sure for how long. Section (A)3 states license must be revoked for commission of any felony w/motor vehicle. I’m not sure when sentencing is but it’s pretty much a done deal] Continue reading “Casa Grande PD nabs hit and run suspect”

DUI suspected in Phoenix crash that injured 5

Yikes — head on collision with multiple life-threatening injuries to the children, whom police said were all properly restrained.

It was a glorious late-April morning in Phoenix, the sun had been up for just an hour, the kids were all buckled in… seriously, how often does stuff like this happen happen? By the way, neither of the vehicles involved were remarkable, the victim was driving a Pontiac G6 and the suspect was driving a Mitsubishi Galant; both mid-sized sedans in the 3,000 pound weight range.
The collision occurred on Southern Avenue near 38th St, Southern Avenue is typical of the Phoenix Metro area’s many, fine, wide, straight, multi-laned, high-speed arterial streets (appears to be posted 45mph); they work really well except when drivers bump into one another, or a ped, or a a cyclist; and then people get seriously injured or die. Continue reading “DUI suspected in Phoenix crash that injured 5”

Driver sentenced in Tucson dui / hitandrun / switcheroo fatality

I’m collecting this here mostly for completeness; this is the case involving the death of motorized bicyclist, Craig Lewis, 47. The perp is Samantha Baldwin, 23. Lewis was struck from behind while riding on the shoulder along W. Ajo Highway near Soledad Ave around 1 a.m. on May 19, 2012. Thanks to tucsonvelo.com for their coverage Continue reading “Driver sentenced in Tucson dui / hitandrun / switcheroo fatality”