Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
This time the wrong-way driver killed two; bringing the death toll for the three incidents in a week to SEVEN in three incidents.
Sun May 18, 2014 ~ 2a: The wrong way pickup driver, 68-year-old Patricia Murphy killed Michael Ruquet, 25, and his passenger Ashley Adea, 20 both of Mesa. Murphy had a passenger, her 9-year-old grandson; both are expected to survive Continue reading “More head-on freeway deaths”
So it’s been a bad week for Phoenix/Valley motorists; 5 dead in two head-on freeway collisions. Plus a bunch of serious injuries. Though presumably just a statistical coincidence to have two such fiery crashes in such a short amount of time, it certainly can serve as a reminder of the general dangerousness of traffic.
In the 1st incident on 5/12/2014 shortly after midnight off duty Mesa Police officer Brandon Mendoza; and wrong-way highly intoxicated Raul Silva Corona both died after colliding head-on. [Officer Mendoza’s case was mentioned in Families of slain Arizona officers wait for federal benefit, noting that a $340,000 federal benefit to the families of police officers killed in the line of duty isn’t available under federal benefit rules. Federal rules do not include driving to or from work to be “line of duty”]
In the 2nd incident 5/16/2014 on I-17, dead are; Evan Christian Hendriadi, 50; Jenny Sudjono, 70; and Lioe Kim Tjhiuw, 78. That crash left three others with serious injury (4 counting the wrong-way driver, a man in his 60’s who is suspected of being impaired. [minor UPDATE: police/DPS still haven’t named the driver. I was told on 8/1/2014 this is still the case because the suspect is still in the hospital, and has so far not been charged]
Brittany Nolan was charged with 2nd degree murder in connection Continue reading “Second wrong-way driver this week kills 3 more on freeway”
[Jan 2016: case finally resolved, defendant/driver convicted and sentenced, see below.] Woman walking on the sidewalk in broad daylight killed by a hit-and-runner, Sunday March 3, 2013. I say ‘another’ because it was only about a week ago another unforunate soul was hit just standin-on-the-corner; fortunately she wasn’t killed. Seriously, how often does this happen? Continue reading “Driver Convicted: Another ped gets whacked on Phoenix SIDEWALK”
table from mysql -H html output:
| InjurySeverity | IncidentID | IncidentDateTime | Onroad | CrossingFeature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 2371350 | 2010-04-17 01:18:00 | 99th Ave | Camelback Rd |
| 5 | 2401688 | 2010-08-13 00:00:00 | 99th Ave | Union Hills Dr |
| 5 | 2416950 | 2010-10-31 11:03:00 | 99th Ave | Lindgren Ave |
table from myphpadmin:
| IncidentID | IncidentDateTime | Onroad | CrossingFeature |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2446148 | 2010-09-23 06:41:00 | Via Linda | 117th St |
| 2453234 | 2010-09-23 07:45:00 | Missouri Ave | 63rd Ave |
| 2445966 | 2010-09-23 08:22:00 | University Dr | Hardy Dr |
| 2451975 | 2010-09-23 11:10:00 | Ina Rd | La Cholla Blvd |
| 2451005 | 2010-09-23 13:49:00 | Colombo Ave | Charleston Rd |
| 2454504 | 2010-09-23 15:10:00 | Glenn St | Orlando Ave |
| 2454482 | 2010-09-23 15:31:00 | 8th St | Tyndall Ave |
| 2453231 | 2010-09-23 15:44:00 | Camelback Rd | 79th Ave |
| 2454471 | 2010-09-23 15:45:00 | Oklahoma St | 12th Ave |
| 2448706 | 2010-09-23 16:13:00 | 3rd Ave | Encanto Blvd |
| 2448069 | 2010-09-23 17:00:00 | Delaware Dr | Apache Trl |
It may be helpful to review the law referred to below by DPS; it is what’s known as the “Basic Speed Law”, in Arizona, it is
§28-701 Reasonable and prudent speed; prima facie evidence; exceptions
A. A person shall not drive a vehicle on a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the circumstances, conditions and actual and potential hazards then existing. A person shall control the speed of a vehicle as necessary to avoid colliding with any object, person, vehicle or other conveyance on, entering or adjacent to the highway in compliance with legal requirements and the duty of all persons to exercise reasonable care for the protection of others…
In other words, if you run into something or someone you are not supposed to, you have violated the basic speed law; the infraction in that case is referred to as something to the effect of “failure to control speed”.
Recently in the wake of the death of DPS officer Tim Huffman due to what appears to be blatant distracted driving… and this being distracted driving awareness month; Arizona DPS is running a crackdown and general media campaign, and has released some Arizona numbers on distracted driving. Here is the DPS press release; a news story is pasted below.
summary: distraction of any kind is associated with about 1 in 10 crashes (1,160 out of ~ 10,000 crashes reviewed); and cell use was the cause of distraction in about one-quarter of those crashes (127 of the 1,160). SO DON’T JUST DWELL ON CELL PHONES. Continue reading “DPS stats shed light on distracted driving”
[ 4/22/2014: in what is presumably the final update, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled (here is same doc archived by azcentral) 4-1 that it is not a DUI violation to be driving with the non-impairing marijuana metabolite in their bodies. In other words, the reversed the Court of Appeals ruling. Here’s a pretty good news item wrapup from the New Times. The lone dissenter offered a detailed analysis as part of the published opinion; I tend to side with her, that the majority overreached by concluding a flat ban, which is the plain language of the law, produces absurd results. But there you have it.]
This idea of any non-zero level of (a long list of) drugs, or their metabolites, being equated with driving impaired has always worried me; this recent CoA ruling affirms that this is proper. So, nothing to do with this case, i’m wondering if a decongestant, pseudophedrine (commonly found in many cold medicines) cause dui per 28-1381(A)3??? why or why not. I am chemistry challenged.
In the Court of Appeals, Div 1. No. 1 CA–SA 12–0211
STATE v. HON. HARRIS/SHILGEVORKYAN (if that link is dead findlaw0211). The caption of this case is a bit confusing, the Real Party in Interest is Hrach Shilgevorkyan. Harris is the name of the Superior Court commisioner.
There are three ways to run afoul of Arizona’s DUI statue. The most common would be #2, BAC > .08 (referred to as drunk per se), typically anymore it is via blood evidence; another way is #1 being “under the influence… if … impaired to the slightest degree”, typically via field sobriety tests. The third way, and the one at issue here is #3, “While there is any drug … or its metabolite in the person’s body”. Continue reading “Arizona court ruling upholds DUI test for marijuana”
[UPDATE — this bill was passed, i believe in exactly the same form as was vetoed last year, we have a new governor. HB2211 in 52 1st regular session, 2015. The bill also included autocycles ]
[VETO — gov. Brewer vetoed this bill… “Brewer in her veto said the bill could pose a public-safety risk, primarily if passengers are drinking alcohol.” ]
Somewhere out of the blue; House trans committee chairperson Rep Karen Fann introduced an amendment that makes definitions and regulations for commercial multiple-person, pedaled, motor-assisted quadricycles. Often offered as a “party bus” where the riders drink and pedal around (presumably the driver remains sober). This is an amendment to SB1201 a striker bill that defined Autocycle as essentially an enclosed 3-wheeled motorcycle. Continue reading “Arizona Legislature considers defining motorized quadricycles”
[ Update: 3/6/2015. One of the drivers has plead guilty to manslaughter and agg assault in a deal ]
Killed while mowing the grass? Seriously, how often does this stuff happen? 52nd and Earll in Phoenix is a residential neighborhood:
Jose Angel Gonzales, 17, and Esteban Chavez Jr., 16, were reportedly racing down a residential street near Earll Drive and 52nd Street (Phoenix) on March 26, when Gonzalez blew through a stop sign and collided with a Toyota pickup. The pickup crashed through a cinder block wall and hit Grijalva, 61, who was mowing a lawn. — azcental.com
Octavio Grijalva Herrera later died of his injuries. The teens have since been indicted on eight charges including manslaughter, endangerment; Chavez was also charged with leaving the scene.
Automobiles are frequently driven negligently and go careening all over the place; like the Maricopa county deputy who was speeding 81mph along a Glendale street recently… fortunately only 1 person was killed in that incident; as can be easily seen from the video it’s only a matter of coincidence and luck that more weren’t killed by the out-of-control vehicles.
—
The Arizona Republic had a nice, tear-jerking story reflecting on the victim. Phoenix landscaper killed by crash remembered, who was a veritable caricature of a hard-working immigrant (permanent legal resident; in case anyone was wondering). The story, as if on cue said “On this particular day, Hererra was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”, which is undoubtedly true.
Phew, 10 dead in just two incidents. In Arizona. In the past few days. The news had been dominated by headlines and Congressional hearings revolving around approximately 13 deaths over something like a decade ( and throughout the entire county, of course) that are linked to a defective GM ignition switch part. Here is how in one instance the defect is said to be linked to the driver’s death, from the Detroit Free Press describes how “…(the victim) got into her Chevrolet Cobalt, jammed down the accelerator and lost control in a nearby cul-de-sac, slamming into a tree. The impact crushed her against the steering wheel. She wasn’t wearing a seat belt; she’d been drinking, too. Despite the crash, the air bags didn’t go off…”. I don’t know if that’s typical or not, presumably some of the crashes could be due to loss of power (brakes/steering) but that’s besides the point…
I can’t help thinking that if as much attention were paid to the ~ 400,000 other traffic deaths that have occurred in the US over the past decade, we might get somewhere on the problem of traffic fatalities being a leading cause of death among Americans. Along the same lines as the gm-ignition switch; there’s an excellent editorial in the AJPH Sept 2014 (Vol 104 No 8) by human-factors traffic safety expert Leonard Evans recounting a similar drama with Toyota, but how US policy is topsy-turvey and misses the big picture due leading to “Twenty Thousand More Americans Killed Annually Because US Traffic-Safety Policy Rejects Science” Continue reading “Car Carnage Wrapup + GM Ignition Switch recall”
UVC — Uniform Vehicle Code. A placeholder article for all things UVC. I don’t really understand the process, but it’s what I refer to as a quasi-official group/document, it has no weight-of-law, unlike e.g. the MUTCD, which is maintained by the federal gov’t, and incorporated by reference into Arizona (among many others) law.
The wiki article is very sparse; it links to the NCUTLO page, which still has a website but from what I understand is “on hiatus”; and the NCUTCD “inherited” maintenance for the UVC — see “evolution” below. See also azbikelaw.org/contrib/UVC/ for many old/historical references to UVC, especially pre-2000 versions. Continue reading “The UVC”
incident 1pm Thursday March 20, 2014 on a “private access road” near 75th Avenue and McDowell Road in Phoenix . Hints from the news story indicate this will likely be a non-traffic death (occurred “on a private access-road”) — meaning this could be one of the many automobile deaths that aren’t counted in the official statistics. Around 32,000 Americans are killed each year in traffic collisions –according to official statistics — how many more are there? [UPDATE: contrary to what I wrote at the time, this incident DID make it into FARS, incident 40170 ; I didn’t look these up but PEDCTYPE: 770 / PEDSNR: 4a / PEDCGP: 750; also of note, the PBPTYPE was “Pers Convey”]
No names released (so will be, of course, difficult to follow up on); only ages: dead is a 3-year-old boy, slightly injured is a female babysitter; the driver is a 22-year-old man. The business about drugs seems highly speculative and the likely investigation outcome will find this to have been an unavoidable “accident” — meaning for some reason the driver, despite what obviously must have been limited sight-distances, wasn’t expected to simply drive a little more slowly. Why not? Continue reading “Another stroller death; Toddler killed in Phoenix Walmart parking lot”
[ Update mid-June — well the “verdict” is in and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery has announced there will be no charges filed. Here is the azcentral news story. I am more aligned with columnist Robert’s thinking; than I am with Montini… though there is still an undeniable appearance of impropriety on County Attorney Montgomery’s part. In summary, Roberts points out that the prosector’s office lets anybody and everybody off the hook (except when impaired); Montini insists it’s simply political. I believe the city of Glendale certainly has enough evidence to charge Pearce with criminal speeding — if they choose to. That would be largely symbolic but would still require the defendant to appear before the court. ] Continue reading “Crash charge weighed vs. deputy”
First off — never ride too close to the edge of the road; you are more likely to run into problems there including debris, bad road surface conditions or other obstructions like drainage grates and so forth. See where to ride on the road for more.
Pima County / Tucson does not have “Bike Lanes”, they, if asked, insist there are no bike lanes, but rather they are “Bike Routes with Striped Shoulders“. Though of course they (everyone, including Pima County’s press releases ) refer to these odd bike facilities as bike lanes whenever convenient — e.g. “The bike lanes on the Dodge Boulevard Bridge over the Rillito River will be closed for drainage modifications, starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, 2013. Bicyclists are asked to seek an alternate route.” [Some updates; as of Jan 2015 I just noticed there are two different bikeway maps covering Pima county, one put out by pima co DOT, at pima.gov and another put out by PAG (Pima Assoc of Gov’ts) the PAG map marks almost everything in blue, including this hot mess, which according to the key is a “Bike Lane”. The PCDOT map is the one that still refers to the bike route with striped shoulders, using the red key color]
Now there’s this… this is a real abomination:
(I’m not sure if this reflects what is there now, or rather what was there at the time of this bad crash) Here’s a google maps street view of the Dodge Blvd bridge over the Rillito near Tucson (apparently it’s owned by Pima County). There is some sort of weird 2′ wide band of green (paint, i guess?) directly next to the curb — from what i gather the gap referred to below is between the curb and the green paint. The google street view coincidentally caught a cyclist dutifully riding within that very narrow band of green paint, just inches from the “drainage gap”. Continue reading “Dodge Blvd Bridge and sub-standard Pima Co bike facilites”
Details from news stories are vague; occurred 3/14/2014 ~ 5:30pm (daylight). “Investigators say Moeckel drifted into the traffic lane just before he was hit”. The victim’s was 71-year-old Larry Moeckel. The story doesn’t say but one would guess the collision occurred on Pima Road somewhere south of Dixileta Drive (since another news story said Pima was closed between Dixileta and Dyanamite Blvd). No direction was specified. Google maps view of Pima Road and Dixileta Drive. Continue reading “Man killed in Scottsdale collision”
Yikes. The unlicensed (permit) 15 y.o. pickup driver made a bad left (“left cross”); killing a motor scooter rider. March 12, 2014. The driver fled the scene.
Some reports referred to the victim’s vehicle as a scooter, and another a motorized scooter… from the pics it was apparently what is officially called a “Motor driven cycle”; which is like a motorcycle but with a limit on engine power; i.e. more power than a moped and less than a “full” motorcycle.
Mesa police plan to recommend hit-and-run charges against a 15-year-old boy who caused a fatal accident on Wednesday afternoon when he made left turn in front of a scooter, according to a police spokesman.
Police did not identify the boy because he is a juvenile, but the victim was identified as Mason Merrill, 22, who was aided by a detective who happened upon the collision on University Drive just east of Alma School Road. Continue reading “Unlicensed pickup driver’s bad left kills motorscooter rider; hit and run”