The driver of a white pickup careened onto the sidewalk, striking two ASU students walking on the sidewalk, injuring one seriously; the driver fled.
DUI remains a huge threat/problem; are we doing enough to remove illegal drivers from the road? The man arrested was FTA (failure to appear) since Jan 2020 on a November 2019 DUI and driving (then) on a suspended license which was suspended for yet another DUI.
Man arrested in connection to Tempe hit-and-run that seriously injured
Sheldon Whitebird, 39, was arrested Saturday night in Mesa. Impairment is being investigated as a possible factor in the collision. …near Rural Road and Apache Boulevard after multiple witnesses reported a vehicle lost control and struck two pedestrians on the sidewalk. Witnesses also reported the driver fled the area, Barela said. … Barela said Whitebird was arrested and held on an arrest warrant from an unrelated incident in which he was suspected of driving under the influence. Impairment is being investigated as a possible factor in the hit-and-run, too, according to police.
There is some security cam video in the news report.
The seriously injured victim, David McCurdy, had multiple broken bones in his neck and spine, underwent two brain surgeries and has been put into a medically induced coma.
Criminal Case
not filed at this time for this incident. Charges being considered would include aggravated assault, and leaving the scene of a crash caused by the fleeing driver.
Caselookup reveals several DUI accusations, the most recent from 2019 in Kyrene Justice court which was DUI and also driving while license suspended for DUI: TR2019-155030 which ended with a failure to appear in Jan 2020 (probably resulting in the warrant referred to in the press release).
Other recent mayhem
These egregious collisions are every-day occurrences; a wrong way driver on I-10 near Ray (about 2 miles from my house) in Phoenix/Chandler (it straddles the border) killed another driver, Robert Kramer on Feb 10, 2021. Hannah Dike, the wrong-way driver was arrested.
DPS identifies wrong-way driver suspected of killing metro Phoenix bartender in crash
The Arizona Department of Public Safety identified a suspected wrong-way driver who killed a metro Phoenix bartender on Feb. 10 as 25-year-old of Phoenix… DPS said troopers were alerted to a wrong-way driver traveling east in the westbound lanes of Interstate 10 near Ray Road in Chandler. Troopers later learned that Dike, who was driving a silver sedan, had crashed into 31-year-old Robert Kramer who was pronounced dead at the scene… DPS suspects impairment was a factor.
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