Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
Yikes. Not to single-out City of Phoenix; but we can objectively say that City of Phoenix is doing an bad job at pro-active traffic enforcement.
Phoenix drunken driving deaths soared last year
Fatalities in drunken-driving accidents within Phoenix city limits doubled in 2023 over the prior year and accounted for over a third of all crash deaths recorded in Phoenix…. Continue reading “Phoenix drunken driving deaths soared last year; enforcement declines”
SmartGrowthAmerica’s Dangerous by Design report has the Tucson area at the third most-dangerous metro by ped deaths in the United States for the period 2018-2022 (at 4.16 ped deaths per 100,000 population).
According to the chart, the Tuscon area catapulted from a much better (the light pink part of the bar) figure in the, prior period, 2013-2017 when it was would have been much lower down on the list.
Continue reading “Tucson ranked third most dangerous metro in entire US?!”
Adding bureaucracy (which is effectively already in place at ADOT, and elsewhere apparently) seems like an odd way to have less government:
“Everything’s less government with me,” said Kern, an Arizona Freedom Caucus member … — azcentral.com
In our area, freeway exits with poor sight lines are signed no turn on red (example: Warner and I-10), but okay sight lines are not (example one mile south on Ray and I-10).
Continue reading “AZ legislator wants to reduce number of no-right-turn-on-reds”
Could it be, Satan?.
So this one caught my eye;
SB1279 – satanic displays; public property; prohibition
Sponsored by Gov’t Committee chair Sen Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek). The hearing was a little bit entertaining; you can make your own judgement here, but it seems to have some constitutional problems (i.e. apparently you can build certain kinds of alters on public property, but not satanic ones) — but at the end of the day, were it to reach governor’s desk it would presumably be vetoed. Political theater. Continue reading “Satan and transportation policy”
We are investigating a serious vehicle vs pedestrian collision near McQueen & Ocotillo. All east bound traffic from S Arizona Ave to McQueen Rd will be shutdown for an extended amount of time. Please take alternate routes for your commute.
The media staging area will be Central… pic.twitter.com/oK5qBJMOxH— Chandler Police (@ChandlerPolice) November 27, 2023
11/27/2023 ~7am Continue reading “Pedestrian killed at Paseo Trail xing, driver in custody after TWO crashes Chandler”
Police say that on Feb 2, 2022, a driver failed to stop at a red light, and ran over Rosa Mroz, a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge, killing her. She was in a marked crosswalk, crossing on the green/walk near 56th St and Camelback. 
Continue reading “Family of dead pedestrian suing driver and Grubhub”
SPOILER ALERT — I never got the bottom of this…but I wanted to publish and get it out there. Hopefully can do data replication experiments some day.
MAG puts out a report that seeks to quantify intersection risk for each of the (1,300 was it?) intersections in the MAG region; the final score is a number between zero and 1, from no-risk to most-risky. It uses the most recently available 5 calendar years of ADOT crash data, which was for this round 2017-2021. Continue reading “Ranking Phoenix metro area’s intersection safety”
I’ve updated the original story with a summary of the police report from this downtown Phoenix serious-turned-fatal collision at 1st and Filmore. Please leave any comments there:
Haven’t done one of these for awhile… but they do keep happening. all the time. Seriously? Continue reading “Man killed by driver while sleeping in his home; Man killed on sidewalk after driver goes airborn”
Alexandra Mendez was sentenced last month in the hit-and-run death of a bicyclist in Glendale. A death she caused (felony 2).
A 4.5 year prison sentence is suprisingly stiff, indicating something else, besides just the hit-run went on.
Read the whole story here: hit-and-run-alert-driver-kills-man-on-northern-ave-glendale
Today I contacted Gov. Hobbs to urge her to veto Sen Rodger’s SB1234, which would further ban all forms of automated enforcement in the state. Including red-light signal, as well as school zone speeding enforcement.
The current status quo would simply allow local authorities to continue to use it where they feel it will improve safety. The state legislators have no business telling localities what to do. Republican’s claims that phot0-enforcement is unconstitutional are entirely unfounded, and unsupported; and their continuing to peddle that lie is shameful.
The justice system utterly failed everybody here. The only bright spot is he’ll be locked up and not driving his monster truck for a few years.
Massive crash mid-morning Tuesday Aug 16, 2022 about 9:00 a.m. Warner Road between Juniper and Lakeshore (a.k.a. Dorsey Ln) in southern Tempe.
Police had eastbound traffic diverted most of the day, indicating serious injury or fatality.
It would appear high speeds are involved (the red vehicle pictured came to rest 200′ east of the intersection where the collision occurred) but no information seems to have been released by Tempe pd, no news, etc.
If you have any information, please leave a comment below. This is a little over a mile away from the spot on Rural Road where a driver lost control and killed a woman sitting at a bus stop earlier this year.
Below is what police told me a few days later; it’s odd it wasn’t (apparently?) sent to the news media, I also note that the name of driver who was arrested was not revealed (arrestees are usually named)… will need to get a police report, but that won’t be available for awhile.
Circumstances indicate police would looking at felony criminal charge.
The details, such as they are, don’t indicate which driver was arrested. However, besides impairment, the condition of the red vehicle, plus where it came to rest ( a couple hundred feet) indicates excessive speed.
———- Forwarded message ———
Date: Fri, Aug 19, 2022 at 2:47 PM
Subject: RE: Warner Rd Crash Fwd: Recent roadway fatalities and severe crashes
On Tuesday at approximately 9:50 a.m. Tempe PD worked a two-vehicle collision near E Warner Rd and S Dorsey Ln. One of the subjects was transported to the hospital with a serious physical injury that was not life-threatening. The collision caused the eastbound lanes on Warner Rd at Lakeshore Dr. to be closed for a bit. During the investigation on the scene, the driver of the other vehicle was placed under arrest; impairment was a factor.
Best,
Tempe Police Media Relations Unit
480-350-8311
480-341-0441 (cell)
policepio@tempe.gov
See comment below for another violent turning-error crash along Warner at Hardy in Feb 2023 that sent a vehicle out of control through the BL and up on the sidewalk; anyone walking or riding there would have been seriously injured or worse. See March 2023 Tucson fatality where a motorist left-turn error caused a 2-vehicle crash that resulted in the death of a cyclist when one of vehicles careeened onto the sidewalk.
In case you are keeping score; this will (likely) not be a traffic statistic.
Fatalities that are, or believed to be, caused by intentional acts are not counted as traffic casualties… though the usual criminal ancillary charges would still apply (e.g. hit and run). This being on a reservation and involvement of tribal members changes the venue, i.e. the Pima County Sheriff and prosecutor would not be handling and the jurisdiction becomes federal. (see info linked here)
12/26/2021 1:20AM Tucson. Victim’s name wasn’t release; the suspect is near 7781 S. Camino Benem
Continue reading “Woman sought in connection to a homicide investigation”
UPDATE; sentencing happened 10/14/2022; See details at original story