How many infractions have you committed today?

In no particular order…

Driver making a left turn at a right-turn-only.

Drivers must obey all traffic control devices; this is a catch-all for official signage and striping which doesn’t have a specific statute.  §28-644 Drivers tend to ignore signage which doesn’t suit their desires. Like the driver pictured, there is a steady stream of illegal movements at this driveway (and in case you were wondering, yes the sign is an “official” TCD, duly authorized by, in this case, the city of Phoenix) (also, in case you were wondering, this is not an “official” stop sign. A complete stop before crossing the sidewalk is always required when emerging from a driveway)

Continue reading “How many infractions have you committed today?”

Medical marijuana no defense to DUI charge

Quick reference to Marijuana / DUI cases

  1. Supreme Court Harris decision filed 4/22/2014 — (A)(3) charges must be based on an impairing chemical, and not just an inactive metabolite; this was a reversal. This was not a medical marijuana case. More Here.
  2. Court of Appeals Darrah decision filed 10/21/2014, see below. Authorized use of marijuana does not preclude (A)(3) charge.
  3. Court of Appeals Dobson and Anderson decision filed 11/4/2014, see below. Additionally, the  §28-1381D.  immunity for prescription drugs does not include marijuana.
  4. Arizona Supreme Court,  Dobson and Anderson filed 11/20/2015, see below

Continue reading “Medical marijuana no defense to DUI charge”

The driver of a vehicle

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This article is very similar to: bicycles-arent-vehicles
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A bicyclist is considered the driver of a vehicle for the purposes of the transportation code, A.R.S. Title 28.; and at the same time, a bicycle is excluded from the definition of vehicle.

More fully, a bicyclist is “…granted all of the rights and is subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle…” §28-812, which goes on to state specifically which Chapters of Title 28 these rules apply to, 3, 4 and 5 which are the Rules of the road, DUI, and Penalties, respectively. Continue reading “The driver of a vehicle”

Wrong-way freeway driver drama continues

Latest incident early morning hours of Friday Oct 17, 2014 when an un-named female 25 year old was suspected of being impaired, driving the wrong way on I-10 from 143 to downtown Phoenix, and causing 4 serious-to-critical injuries. Authorities are doing a very good job of protecting suspects’ identities, for some reason. Continue reading “Wrong-way freeway driver drama continues”

AZPOST — Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training

It is important to get all Law Enforcement Officers properly trained on the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles; and how that affects bicyclists. A constant bone of contention is where-to-ride-on-the-road, and I have several types of (mostly general, not state-specfic) training materials linked there.  Continue reading “AZPOST — Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training”

godaddy and ssh and cron

In the beginning, say from 2000-2013 or 14: my username is azbikelaw (probably not a surprise or a revealing security hole, seeing as how it is in the domain name); and I use that to log into ssh and everything is spiffy. When logged in to ssh, e.g. I see my files are “owned” by azbikelaw. So far so good. Continue reading “godaddy and ssh and cron”

Tucson hit-and-run driver kills cyclist; woman arrested

[Update 4/8/2016: the update is there is absolutely no update on the suspect; it’s been over a year and half. Besides the hit and run, FARS has her at .12 BAC]

9/25/2014 12:23am. Hit run. Driver arrested, suspect intoxication. Suspect Nichole Jacinto. Victim 58 y.o. James Frankiewicz. Another news reports says was struck from behind in bike lane. The area appears to have a striped shoulder; it even goes on to be to the right of a RTO lane at Grant.

Location: southbound on Oracle Rd near Jacinto St. (yes, that is a coincidence; the suspect’s name is also Jacinto).

The most-detailed reporting is at bicycletucson.com

Continue reading “Tucson hit-and-run driver kills cyclist; woman arrested”

Off-duty Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy hit and thrown

victim 57 y.o. male off duty PCSO Deputy Art Gutierrez / serious but not life-threatening injuries. Driver: not mentioned. Picture indicates the car was an older Saturn sedan. Occured  9/16/2014 “afternoon” Tanque Verde near Dusty Lane in Pima County (outside of city of Tucson). Rear ended in the “bike lane”. Continue reading “Off-duty Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy hit and thrown”

Fatal Tempe Ped hit-and-run; Driver arrested

Friday 9/12/2014 ~ 9pm near McClintock and Apache, Tempe.

Victim was crossing mid-block; Jon Alguire.  29 y.o. suspect Justin Michael Gordecki booked on susp of hit-run, DUI and “False reporting to police” (hmmm?).

Criminal case CR2014144645; so far headed to trial 7/8/2015. It seems plain he is not going to be charged with the victim’s death (mid-block crossing), just a “simple” hit-and-run, along with probably a dui. Not sure what the holdup could be.

There was an additional unrelated ped-MV crash the same night in Tempe at Priest and University with “life-threatening” injury.

eastvalleytribune.com

Are Cyclists Required to Carry ID? Are Pedestrians? Updated 2014

[2/23/2019 update: see story about 12 y.o. Hilde Kate Lysiak says Marshal Joseph Patterson stopped her as she was biking in Patagonia, Arizona. Various issues: asked her for identification?. “failure to comply with lawful order”? “illegal to video record”? ID?  ]

[2/17/2015 update: Officer Ferrin of the Ore incident has resigned. ASU released a chief’s letter and an independent investigation commissioned by ASU performed by Investigative Research Inc.  (apparently through public records?) I would describe as scathing, and that corroborates most of what I thought/said below, see the lengthy news story on azcentral — There is no law requiring peds to provide an ID card (in other words his saying “Let me see your ID or you will be arrested for failing to provide ID” is wrong, see  Arizona v Akins, below); there was no ‘jaywalking’, see link below to the actual jaywalking laws; there was probably no probable cause for the arrest; he didn’t “almost run her over”; 5 days earlier the officer had a similar (but non-physical) power-trip incident over a crosswalk. and on and on. The transcript, see below, confirms Officer Ferrin doesn’t understand the (ID) law]

[2015 update to the Ore incident: in an apparent about-face, ASU has moved to terminate Officer Stewart Ferrin over the matter; apparently as the result of an un-released independent review by an “outside agency”. ]

In 1999 Tucson bicyclist Enol Daniel Ortiz Jr. spent the night in jail for not having ID on him. It appears that now (since 2003) cyclists and other non-motorists have no legal obligation to carry identification.

The update in 2014  is due to the unusual case of Ersula Ore, an English professor at ASU. She was apparently “jaywalking” when she got into an altercation with ASU police. From what I can see this on College Ave, somewhere north of University Dr. This is a public street in the city of Tempe (there seems to be some confusion and many erroneous comments about this; this location is not “on campus” or somesuch). Tempe’s codes for pedestrians are here; ASU is NOT in the “central business district”, the more-restrictive “jaywalking” code only applies in the CBD so it leads me to wonder if she was really jaywalking at all. Jaywalking codes, real or imagined, are frequently used to assert superiority by motorists (the police officers were driving cars) over pedestrians.

Continue reading “Are Cyclists Required to Carry ID? Are Pedestrians? Updated 2014”

Cyclist falls in roadway; then fatally struck by passing motorist

Wed, 8/27/2014 ~ 2030. Cyclist 69-year-old Andrew Yearby.  In the area of 43rd Avenue and Crittenden Lane, Phoenix. This was initially investigated as hit and run, however police now believe the man fell in the roadway for unrelated/unknown reasons; and was subsequently run over by the driver of a Toyota Camry. Continue reading “Cyclist falls in roadway; then fatally struck by passing motorist”

Car-scooter crash in Mesa leaves 1 dead

Aug 2, 2014 ~ 7:30AM The driver of a car was speeding and possibly impaired when she failed to stop at t red light, rear-ending a stopped motor scooter driver, killing him. The delay in the arrest was apparently due to the driver’s hospitalization. Julie Ann Gutierrez  was arrested 8/19 on suspicion of manslaughter; and MSCO is awaiting blood test results that could bump up the charge to 2nd degree murder.

Statistical note: motor scooters (and mopeds, and motorized bicycles) are categorized as motorcycles. Continue reading “Car-scooter crash in Mesa leaves 1 dead”

Yikes. Inattention/Distraction, much?

080414-city-worker-hit
photo credit: Peoria Fire Dept. Pecos Road near 17th Street

Rest assured the authorities are dealing harshly with the inattentive driver who caused a serious injury; she gets a traffic ticket “The driver of the Kia will be cited…”. That the driver will be immediately cited indicates police aren’t even bothering to look at any more serious charges — this distracted driver is facing 2nd Degree murder charges, exactly how are they different? He wasn’t looking at the road. According to the present story, something in the rear seat distracted this driver; somehow causing her to suddenly veer.  So, this yields nothing more than a traffic citation — what constitutes recklessness. Endangerment/assault/aggravated assault — these are apparently not within the ken of the Phoenix PD, and/or prosecutor(s). “A person commits endangerment by recklessly endangering another person”. “A person commits assault by…recklessly causing any physical injury”. “A person commits aggravated assault if the person commits assault …and… causes serious physical injury to another”

Continue reading “Yikes. Inattention/Distraction, much?”