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

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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.

Continue reading “Another Phoenix Ped killed on sidewalk”

Truck driver get 1 year for fatal muscle relaxer crash

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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

(Source: KPHO/KTVK)
(Source: KPHO/KTVK)

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”

Funding proposal would add BLs on Chandler Blvd over I-10

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Chandler Blvd is vastly wide, and lacks bike lanes west of ~ 54th St.

This is pretty interesting for those of us in the Ahwatukee / Chandler area…

[ update: 11/2017 here is the “15%” Initial Project Assessment ; also see below for related update on Phoenix side circa 2020 ]
[Updates, as of early 2022; project is completed, scroll down]

City of Chandler has made a request for TA/CMAQ (see also  alameda-drive-tempe-bicycle-pedestrian-proposal for more about TA/CMAQ) funding to add BLs on Chandler blvd between where they stop now (~ 54th St) and continue them to the “far” side of the bridge (City of Phoenix jurisdiction). It’s about .4 miles and the bottom line cost estimate is ~ 600,000 (details are in the link below). The main money driver here is some of the area needs to have curb/gutter/sidewalk relocated in order to make room. See the area on Google Maps. Continue reading “Funding proposal would add BLs on Chandler Blvd over I-10”

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”

Phoenix media blitz addresses wrong-way riding

[Update — a newer presentation of more-or-less the same material can be found at azbikelaw.org/ride-with-traffic ]

Phoenix last week rolled out a major media blitz to target wrong-way riding

bike-sign-2-tipsThey all struggle with the fact that the direction of riding on sidewalks, in Phoenix, is not regulated. In other words, it’s not illegal to ride counter-flow on Phoenix sidewalks. But they didn’t do a scrupulous job of noting the difference between legal counter-flow sidewalk riding, and the (always) illegal counter-flow street riding. Since the State of Arizona has chosen not to regulate riding on the sidewalk at all, and individual cites do, the topic is voluminous —  for much much more about sidewalk riding see sidewalk-cycling-in-arizona.

So some of the stories take odd turns, like the the notion that “…because riding a short distance against traffic sometimes might be safer, Wilcoxon says”.  Oh my. Continue reading “Phoenix media blitz addresses wrong-way riding”

Alameda Drive Tempe Bicycle / Pedestrian Proposal

Alameda / Tempe funding proposal http://www.azmag.gov/Documents-Ext/ModalApps_2018/BP/TMP-19-BPB-001_Complete-Application.pdf
Door Zone Bike Lanes figure prominently in the Alameda Drive / Tempe funding proposal

If you’ve never read one of these funding proposals before, they’re pretty interesting. This is one of some number of TA / CMAQ Application for FY 2018, 2019, and 2020 Projects submitted to MAG. Phew, lots of initials: TA / CMAQ Transportation Alternatives / Congestion Mitigation Air Quality. MAG is the Maricopa Association of Governments, who has some sort of process to score these things and recommend (decide?) who gets what. They also have relatively detailed cost estimates, e.g. this project’s bottom line is just shy of $2M total; the kicker is the cost split Continue reading “Alameda Drive Tempe Bicycle / Pedestrian Proposal”

Out of control drivers kill man on Phoenix sidewalk

2CDFB38F00000578-3252553-image-m-111_1443474861187-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.

Continue reading “Tucson-area Bike Lane rear-end fatal”

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

photo: MSCO
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

Photo: Paulina Iracka
Photo: Paulina Iracka

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”