Unlicensed pickup driver’s bad left kills motorscooter rider; hit and run

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.

azcentral.com

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”

Phoenix driver pleads guilty in fatal 2012 car a-word

So this is weird — the weird part being that a driver who doesn’t seem to have been doing much if anything wrong, while the driver/victim seemed to have been doing everything wrong — was charged with Neg Hom.

The victim was a driver emerging from a driveway. The driver, Jeffrey David Meyn, who plead guilty to negligent homicide, was simply going straight along the main road; he was said to have just passed through a yellow-light (which is perfectly legal) when he struck the victim’s vehicle as it emerged from a driveway on Northern Ave just west of the intersection of Northern Ave and 12th St, Phoenix on June 25, 2012 (almost two years ago!). Continue reading “Phoenix driver pleads guilty in fatal 2012 car a-word”

More about shoulders; this time golf carts.

cartTracksSunCity — Sample “excessively wide” road in Sun City, AZ. This is Boswell Blvd, somewhere south of Bell Rd. You can clearly see the golf cart “tracks” in the shoulder.

There is an interesting bill floating around in the state legislature, HB2027 (see
bill-tracker to follow this and other bills of interest)

Direct link to HB2027 — golf carts allowed to use shoulder. For much more about shoulder usage, see shoulder-use.

The first odd thing is the bill is written so it only applies to age restricted communities in unincorporated areas of counties more than 3 million population.(phew! Translation: Sun City, Sun City West, etc. It also, come to think of it, applies to Sun Lakes.). Continue reading “More about shoulders; this time golf carts.”

Another MV-house collision

I’m becoming increasingly intrigued by these sorts of things. Like how often do cars just ram into houses? Is it a traffic crash? (i.e. will there be an ACR? I am tagging it as a non-traffic just to remember to go back and check).

Incident occurred 2/7/2014 around 3pm; house at the 9800 block of N 9th St Phoenix Continue reading “Another MV-house collision”

Street Highway Sidewalk Roadway Shoulder Definitions

180577_1431298233827_2121435_n — Dan Gutierrez’s graphic illustration (CVC are references to the CA vehicle code).

It seems as though I’ve had to look this up over and over. Finally, here are all the definitions, for the first time ever, together:

Continue reading “Street Highway Sidewalk Roadway Shoulder Definitions”

51st Leg, 2nd regular session bill tracker (spring 2014)

Bills affecting cyclists

This legislative session is now over; each bill’s disposition is noted below…

SB1170 bicycle equipment (helmet requirement for < 18 y.o.)

Bill Status: Assigned to Trans and PS (Public Safety) but not on agenda to be heard. [Final status: never heard]

azbikelaw says: mandatory helmet use laws tend to have the unintended consequence of reducing cycling. The safety benefits of bicyclist helmet use tend to overstated.

HB2677 theft; bicycle; increased penalty

Bill Status: Assigned to Judiciary but not on agenda. [Final status: never heard]

HB2545 bicyclists; public ways
Bill Status: on agenda 2/13 house trans committee; at the hearing, without any notice, the bill was not heard w/o explanation (last few seconds of the hearing). [Final status: Held/never heard] Continue reading “51st Leg, 2nd regular session bill tracker (spring 2014)”

Court reinstates Scottsdale DUI test results

There was a CoA ruling recently in a long-running case that questioned the accuracy of one particular piece of lab equipment used in Scottdale’s crime lab involved with a handful of serious DUI cases.

CA-SA 13-0285 STATE v. HON. BERNSTEIN/HERMAN in the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division 1, was a so-called “special action” brought by Maricopa County Prosecutor Bill Mongomery. Continue reading “Court reinstates Scottsdale DUI test results”

Driver Sentenced: Serious Injuries in Scottsdale Pedicab Crash

[1/15/2014: azcentral.com Man in Scottsdale pedicab crash sentenced to 4 years in prison; Joseph Paul Spano pleaded guilty to two counts aggravated assault plus one endangerment ]

Two passengers of a pedicab were very seriously injured when they were struck by an suspected drunk driver in an early morning hours crash near downtown Scottsdale 1/4/2013. The pedicab’s driver was also injured. The crash occurred as the pedicab was traveling north on Scottsdale Road near Rose Lane.

Seriously injured Cody A. Clark and Michael D. Tysver were both Kansas state fans in town for the Fiesta Bowl. The automobile driver “Phoenix resident Joseph Paul Spano, 27, was driving the sedan that collided with the pedicab and was arrested on suspicion of DUI, endangerment and aggravated assault”. Aggravated assault, §13-1204, can be a fairly serious charge; depending on a variety of factors. Continue reading “Driver Sentenced: Serious Injuries in Scottsdale Pedicab Crash”

Stab-and-run; boats hit-and-run; road rage verdict

In odd automobility news (this is all local Phx metro, mind you), from Tues Jan 14, 2014 “Around the Valley” Arizona Republic, page B2…

Scottsdale: “According to police, the man was about to cross Cactus Road at its intersection with Hayden Road at about 6 a.m. when a dark colored, two-door vehicle that was driving southbound on Hayden stopped in front of him. The driver got out of the car and stabbed the man in the abdomen with a small blade, then immediately got back into the car and drove westbound on Cactus”

Mesa: “A hit and run at the Bass Pro Shops in Mesa early Saturday morning resulted in nearly $100,000 in damages to boats at the retailer… Mesa police were called out to the Bass Pro Shops near Loop-202 and Dobson Road at about 8:40 a.m. Saturday… While the vehicle was not present at the scene, police found a Ford emblem and a Triton V10 emblem… investigators believe the vehicle is possibly two-toned — gray on the bottom and white on the top — with heavy damage to the front-end”

Last Week

Road Rage incident from 2008: shooter found guilty at 2nd trial: “John Chester Stuart will spend the next 18 years in prison for shooting a man that came at Stuart’s car during a 2008 road-rage incident following the Phoenix Open. Stuart, 51, was convicted of second-degree murder and drive-by shooting in September for killing 49-year-old Tom Beasley. The conviction came after a jury reached an impasse during a rambunctious first trial that saw Stuart representing himself and relying on a legal theory that rejects much of the American justice system”. The was some odd goings on immediately after the incident involving purportedly faked document, and Stuart’s purported involvement in a group called the Freemen. Some other interesting associations freedomsphoenix.com; dailypaul.com; he founded/ran showmetheloan.net and something called the “quiet title process”.

Un-charged hit and run

This is an old incident from April 2012 — I’m posting it here just to reorganize things… This is a SUV vs. ped (the ped happened to have been walking a bicycle) in crosswalk initially investigated as hit-and-run since the driver, well, hit and then ran. For whatever reason Chandler Police decided that was fine, but oddly never cited her for what had to have been a moving violation.

The below old/original information has been left here for posterity but struck-through. Newer (written in 2015), longer, explanation with case law references is here, see in particular Blevins with regard to hit-and-run mental state. Continue reading “Un-charged hit and run”

Parking in Bike Lanes

Is parking allowed in bike lanes? sometimes yes, sometimes no…

Is parking permitted in bike lanes? State law at first glance seems to indicate flatly no:

§28-815D. A person shall not operate, stop, park or leave standing a vehicle in a path or lane designated as a bicycle path or lane…

No parking, right? Well, as usual there’s more to the story. The moral to the story, if there is one, is that things are often more complicated than they seem, and 2) the “local authority” provision of A.R.S. can be particularly problematical to bicyclists.

Continue reading “Parking in Bike Lanes”

Police Identify Woman Run Over, Killed by SUV

This is a non-traffic traffic fatality. (meaning it doesn’t get reflected in traffic stats)…

Police ID woman run over, killed at Scottsdale Costco

A Fountain Hills woman who was run over and killed at a Scottsdale Costo on Saturday (01/04/2014) was identified by Scottsdale police Sunday. Police said Patricia A. Covault, 74, died after she was accidentally stuck by a Jeep SUV at the Costco gas station at 15255 N. Hayden Road. Covault was hit when she walked around her own vehicle after the 86-year-old man driving the Jeep SUV backed into her vehicle parked at a gas pump, police said. The man backed over Covault and dragged her a short distance, according to police. She was pronounced dead at the scene. No charges will be filed against the driver of the SUV, Scottsdale police spokesman Officer Dave Pubins said in a statement.

Phoenix police make hit-run arrest in death of BMX rider

So this is unusual; the driver of an ATV struck and killed a cyclist who was riding a BMX-style bicycle. I was curious to look up the leaving-the-scene statutes (28-661) to see where the law applies; if it was in fact off-road, the article doesn’t really specify… 28-621 seems to indicate H&R doesn’t apply off-road, see this comment.

The incident occurred about 5 p.m. near 56th Street and Happy Valley Road 12/17/2013 and won’t “count” as a traffic fatality if it was off-road. For now, I’ve tagged it non-traffic-fatality

Phoenix police make arrest in death of BMX rider

Phoenix police have arrested a man who investigators believe collided with a BMX rider in the desert last week and fled the scene on his ATV.

The BMX rider later, Frisco Davidson-Spurs Yankolovich, died from his injuries and police began a search for the ATV driver that ended Monday with the arrest of 47-year-old Gregg Creevy, police said. Continue reading “Phoenix police make hit-run arrest in death of BMX rider”

(still) No charges filed vs. Pinal deputy in 2012 fatal crash

[Updated 12/2013; Deputy fired, see below]

So this is pretty weird situation stemming from a fatal wreck occurring August 2012. I don’t know how any of this is supposed to work — but it occurs to me that County Attorney Voyles could have sent this to a neutral party (another county) for disposition, and that would have avoided any appearance of impropriety. As it stands, Voyles had a clear conflict-of-interest; and he decided it in favor of his interests. Voyles description of the deputy’s actions (‘patrolling’ at ~ 100mph?) as “an acceptable investigating patrolling activity” is quite bold, and troubling. They don’t call it “criminal speeding” (see 28-701.02) for nothing, well I mean reasonable people call it that, I don’t know how Voyles (or the deputy) rationalizes it. The victim’s (that is to say, the guy that died; the deputy was seriously injured) actions were certainly also negligent — he was very drunk, and made a bad left — but that certainly doesn’t absolve Steele of all responsibility for the collision. In any event, this is going to be very expensive for Pinal county taxpayers. Continue reading “(still) No charges filed vs. Pinal deputy in 2012 fatal crash”

3 year-old squashed to death in crosswalk

tundra-stroller — Drivers operating pickups and other so-called “light trucks and vans” account for a disproportionate amount of pedestrian fatalities; but nobody seems to care…

3 year-old Anthony Meade was squashed to death in crosswalk at 20th and Camelback Rd, Phoenix on 12/4/2013 ~ 7:30PM. The driver (whose name apparently has not been released and is referred to only as a 26-year-old) was driving a 2009 Toyota Tundra, a large pickup…

All parties were northbound; the driver making a left from 20th Street onto Camelback, and the peds were crossing Camelback at the intersection. Continue reading “3 year-old squashed to death in crosswalk”