Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
I had missed this one, that apparently did not make the news, though while reconciling the 2014 asdm data, I see that accidentdatacenter.com had it correct — other than they described the cyclist as in extremely critical condition so they hadn’t updated it.
Continue reading “Phoenix bicyclist fatal collision 7th and Pima”
This incident never made the news; though it was accurately described by accidentdatacenter.com at the time; though the wording was a little strange, I mean for example “He came out of nowhere and crossed in front of them,” doesn’t sound like something a Phoenix PIO would say. Continue reading “Bike rider struck and killed when he crosses in front of vehicle on 28th Ave and McDowell”
The 0.5% sales tax that funds transportation projects in Maricopa county since 1985 is on track to come up a few billion dollars short by the time it expires in 2025. The funds are used to pay for all manner of projects including local street improvements, bus pullouts (to make car travel faster), transit including bus and light rail; by most of all and by far the most dollars are spent building highways. From a sales tax. There are those who fancy that motorists are “paying their own way”, through from example fuel taxes and VLT (vehicle license tax) but that’s just not so. These funds have been shrinking for a variety of reasons not the least of which is the major component, fuel tax, has not increased in over over twenty years.
[this will be a catch-all for issues relating to legal requirement to use bike lanes (BLs). This was moved from the article explaining When must I ride my bicycle on the shoulder?, because it was muddying that issue unnecessarily; after all BLs are not shoulders and shoulders are not BLs. For all the details about shoulders, see that article; the short answer is their use is almost never required, that conclusion stems from the fact that shoulders are not part of the roadway.] Continue reading “Arizona does NOT have a mandatory Bike Lane Law”
weird motorist crash fatality, Chandler Blvd, near Desert Foothills Parkway in Ahwautkee (Phoenix). Driver was driving erratically prior to crossing over and crashing head-on into another car. Continue reading “Police: Driver killed in Ahwatukee crash swerved into traffic”
12/19/2014 ~ 11am. Elderly male driver of minivan apparently ran red light southbound Gilbert Road, killing bicyclist (not released) and injuring 2 others; as they passed through the intersection of Gilbert Road and 8th Ave (apparently 8th Ave is Pueblo Ave on the east side) in Mesa, AZ Continue reading “Alleged red-light runner hits 3 bicyclists, 1 dead in Mesa”
[Update: Sentencing here]
11/19/2014: 1 fatality (possibly a second, later) and several injuries when semi driver Brian Knoll drove into a line of stopped traffic on I-17 near Bell Road. He’s been charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault and endangerment; and entered a plea of not guilty to all charges on 12/3. Continue reading “Semi driver charged in I-17 fatality”
Check if this is a “traffic” fatality…. Crashes on private property “don’t count” as traffic crashes; however if the “unstabilized event” first occured on the public road, then it should.
Tuesday 12/2/2014 ~ 2:20am. Glendale Ave near 59th Ave, Glendale, AZ. Ford (appears to be an F-150) white pickup. Victim: Sean Brannen, male 47. Continue reading “Man dies after crashing truck into Glendale barbershop”
The term “accident” should never be used in connection with a vehicle collision.
Here is the reasoning. The terminology switch at NHTSA occurred years ago… Continue reading “Was that an accident, or a crash?”
I usually make a point of only noting incidents that happen in Arizona; but the DZBL thing is just ridiculous, plus at least the cyclist didn’t die in vain… (DZBL = Door Zone Bike Lane. That is: a bike lane placed next to parking where the parked car doors when open protrude into the bike lane) Continue reading “Door Zone Bike Lane removed after cyclist killed”
Below is re-printed from the Arizona Republic , the quiz accompanied their article on ADOT’s BSAP):
The Arizona Department of Transportation recommends strengthening state laws and adding more questions about bicycle safety in driver’s license tests. Many people don’t know the existing rules. How well do you?
(note these are suggested questions; not in actual use. Also note they do not follow the standard format of 3 answers)
[UPDATE; criminal case driver sentenced to 6.5 years prison, see below]
[There have been a couple recent items of interest documented at ourhtn.com, on Nov 29 there was a MV crash at intersection, and on Dec 1 a mobile speed trailer was set up] Continue reading “Cyclist dead in Ahwatukee car wreck”
This is a google fusion table, like the multi-year bike and ped crashmaps; but will include ALL types of crashes. Because of google limitation of 100,000 rows — yeah there are a lot of crashes! — this set will be limited to Maricopa County only for one year, 2013. There are almost 80,000 crashes per year in Maricopa County.
Victim 23/M Brandon Rutledge; 11/6/2014, no time specified, video indicates it was daylight. 59th Avenue & Roosevelt, Phoenix; A semi tractor (video shows no trailer) was turning right from 59th Ave (direction was not specified) on to Roosevelt. The bicyclist had been riding on the sidewalk on 59th and continued through crosswalk, though the direction is not specified. “(phoenix police) did say the bicyclist appears to have broken some traffic laws” may be incorrect, Phoenix PD tends to fault bicyclists riding in crosswalks despite it not being illegal. I have attempted repeatedly to point this out to Phoenix PD; e.g. when an 82-year-old driver left-crossed and killed an 11-year-old girl , they determined the driver had done nothing wrong.
Continue reading “Crosswalk cyclist killed in crash w/ turning semi driver”
[because of the obvious mis-codings (UNKNOWNS that are obviously known, in both asdm and FARS I’m tagging this missing hit and run, not because it was a hit and run, just to make it easier to find mis-coding ]
[ Update — as things turn out, this does appear in both asdm and FARS data for 2014, but i’m not sure why; since it was private roads? For comparison purposes, check out this one from Mesa 2013 that did not appear in the data]
11/7/2014 ~ morning time “(PCSO) said the man was riding eastbound on Hawks Wing Drive, when he was struck by a car heading southbound on Mooncrest Drive” Hawks Wing Dr, which has a stop sign, is on the stem of a T intersection with Mooncrest. [google maps]
The 79 y.o. male victim’s name is Richard Hayward Leon.
These are both residential streets; and the location is within a gated-community, which makes this highly unusual.
That it is on private streets probably means this is a “non-traffic” traffic fatality — that it won’t count towards traffic statistics, and will not be entered into ADOT traffic collision database, nor will it be reported to FARS when the time comes. This somehow seems wrong, so I want to make note of it and keep an eye out. Continue reading “79 y.o. Bicyclist killed in gated-community car crash North of Tucson”
