Crosswalk cyclist killed in crash w/ turning semi driver

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”

79 y.o. Bicyclist killed in gated-community car crash North of Tucson

[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.

KGUN photo

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”

Another MM decision; MM card is no defense to DUI

About two weeks after MEDICAL MARIJUANA NO DEFENSE TO DUI CHARGE, another Arizona Court of Appeals Div 1 decision came down that is related to and as expected consistent with their earlier opinion. Please visit that link for more info and scroll down to “Another Court of Appeals Case 11/4/2014”.

Bicyclist killed in Graham Co highway collision

Bicyclist Jesse A. Simon, 64 was killed Thursday 10/30/2014 ~ 1213pm on US 191 northbound ~ 3.5 miles north of US Highway 70; when he was clipped by the (right, i assume) mirror of a passing pickup (which may have been towing an RV trailer?) Continue reading “Bicyclist killed in Graham Co highway collision”

Triple motorist fatal caused by fleeing driver

lovely.  Police say Valerie Cervantez, 26, and an unidentified man were fleeing 10/30/2014 ~9pm in a Camaro; when they crossed over and crashed head on into victim Sylvester Romero who was retuning home from work (limo driver, one might guess) driving a Lincoln town car. Continue reading “Triple motorist fatal caused by fleeing driver”

Fatal bicyclist collision with Tucson PD unmarked vehicle

11/1/2014 ~ 10:15pm, victim: Francisco Galvez.  The location was on 1st Ave “near” Navajo Rd. 1St Ave is a multi-laned arterial-looking road; Navajo is a minor street that is offset at 1st Ave — in other words it makes two intersections with 1st. I’m not sure exatly what “near” means.

The report notes the bicyclist had a functioning headlight, and had a taillight but didn’t know if it was working (that should have no bearing on the angle collision described).

here’s the bicycletucson.com report.

Continue reading “Fatal bicyclist collision with Tucson PD unmarked vehicle”

Chandler officers killed in separate wrecks

The Chandler police force is reeling from the deaths of two officers only three days apart in unrelated traffic collisions…

(on-duty) City of Chandler Police “Officer David Payne, 37, was sitting on his police motorcycle at a red light at about 12:40 a.m. 10/31/2014 Friday when a car rear-ended him at the intersection of Chandler Boulevard and Pennington Drive.” Causing his death. “Police arrested Tempe resident Brian Yazzie, 31, on suspicion of manslaughter and hit-and-run for his role in the collision”. Oh yeah,  plus his license was suspended in (and, presumably, since) 2010. — azcentral

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Road rage: on-duty Phx police officer arrested

[2/19/2015; Officer Sweet plead guilty to one count of disorderly conduct. Sentenced to probation Mar 26, the judge said “Probably the greatest loss for [Sweet] is the loss of being on the police department and that he’ll never be a police officer again in the state of Arizona” ]

Road rage really does make some people do wacky stuff.

Oiy: an older gentleman (age? maybe 60?) and his neighbor were on their way to Monday morning Mass when they got into a road rage incident with the driver of van. The driver of the van, as things turn out, is an on-duty Phoenix Police officer transporting some prisoners in an unmarked van. Anyway, the police officer ended up pulling his gun; and he, the police officer, has since been arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault. This is a huge charge so it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

A couple of interesting points; the case apparently involves surveillance video (it would make sense the van has that) — this will be interesting video to watch.

The police officer after the “stop” drove off. The occupants of the other vehicle immediately made a police report — this is key to not let road-bullies slide, whoever they are.

The arrested police officer was 51-year-old Jeremy Sweet. In the other car were former state legislator “Ruiz and his passenger, fellow churchgoer Monica Rivera”.

azcentral — Phoenix man: Officer made me fear for my life

 

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

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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”