A driver nearly killed bicyclist Larry Fawcet when police say he drove off the road; as you can see from the extensive damage on the vehicle, the driver was WAY off the road, striking the bicyclist on the (unpaved part?) of the shoulder. When the investigation report was finally released months after (but still before tox results were released) being harangued by ABC15, it revealed that the driver “… Cooper Lamb failed nearly every field sobriety test administered. The Drug Recognition Expert wrote that Cooper ‘displayed poor balance and fine motor skills, his speech was slow and slightly slurred, and he had major problems with simple comprehension on instructions’.”
Friday 1/14/2021 ~ 1:30AM. A man riding an electric bicycle 12th St near the Arizona Canal, Phoenix and was struck after falling in the street. The criminal driver fled eastbound on Wagon Wheel dr, police say the suspect vehicle is a red 2-door (sedan, i guess?)
Drivers who flee are usually impaired; driver Alexandra Mendez was arrested last week in connection with the killing of a Chris Owan near Luke AFB before Christmas.
In case you are keeping score; this will (likely) not be a traffic statistic.
Fatalities that are, or believed to be, caused by intentional acts are not counted as traffic casualties… though the usual criminal ancillary charges would still apply (e.g. hit and run). This being on a reservation and involvement of tribal members changes the venue, i.e. the Pima County Sheriff and prosecutor would not be handling and the jurisdiction becomes federal. (see info linked here)
12/26/2021 1:20AM Tucson. Victim’s name wasn’t release; the suspect is near 7781 S. Camino Benem
Alexandra Mendez arrested. Suspected driver in fatal Hit And Run and manslaughter. photo: MSCO
[ SUSPECT ARRESTED: Alexandra Mendez in connection with this fatal hit and run. By the way, “people” often say hit-and-run drivers not immediately captured in effect can’t be prosecuted — tell that to Christophen Wakefield Chevalier who went to prison for 5 years after driving up on a Phoenix sidewalk in 2013 killing someone and fleeing. He did his best to hide the car, but it just wasn’t good enough]
Very light on details, the entire blurb below is from 12news and there seems to have been no other coverage, other than to have been picked up/repeated on a personal-injury lawyer’s blog.
12/9/2021 8:20am near Camelback and 42nd Ave. No mechanism was given. There is no 42nd avenue there, but what would align with 4200 west block of Camelback is an off-ramp for Grand Avenue ( a.k.a. US60, which is apparently limited access in that area) to Camelback Road.
12/17/2021 7:30AM Pedestrian was walking along Cornell near Forest; this is the neighborhood adjoining Kiwanis park in Tempe. This is a residential area, traffic engineers would call Cornell Drive “collector” street.
driver of vehicle struck/killed officer doing traffic control in Scottsdale
11/10/2021 ~ 10am. What was the driver doing to cause such an obvious and fatal mistake? Authorities have not yet said or speculated. The driver’s name has not been released. Scottsdale PD is investigating. McDowell Road near 87th St.
A phrase you’ll often hear connected with these sorts of incidents is the victim(s) were in the “wrong place at the wrong time”. Well it seems that the wrong place is anyplace; and the wrong time is anytime morning noon or night.
About a week ago, Pima County “Administrator Chuck Huckelberry experienced life-threatening injuries after a driver of a car made an unsafe lane change and collided with another vehicle that caused it to careen into Huckelberry as he rode his bike…” tucson.com Incidentally, the driver was apparently charged with a 28-672, a criminal misdemeanor; the news story refers only to a “citation” which while true isn’t the usual nomenclature. Continue reading “Driver kills man at south Phoenix bus stop”
11/1/2021 ~ 11:30pm. Two of the four people in a car being driven the wrong way by a 17 y.o. male died when that vehicle collided with another. The driver of that other vehicle sustained serious injuries. The driver has not been charged, investigation is ongoing; and police haven’t hinted at why the driver made this fatal error. Most wrong-way drivers are impaired.
Price road here is a “frontage” road which parallels the Price Freeway / Loop 202. It’s configured as a separated one-way running along both sides of the freeway (i.e. on the west side, it’s only southbound; and on the east it’s only northbound). They didn’t say specifically where along Price the incident occurred but here is a sample intersection (e.g. at Southern); another possibility for going the wrong way would be for a driver to turn left from a side-street (only rights are permitted. I’m a little surprised there aren’t diverters on the side-street to make it more difficult to turn left).
Aldous Harris, a 17-year-old McClintock High School senior, was one of two victims who died during a wrong-way collision on Monday on Price Road in Tempe, police officials said Wednesday… According to police, a single driver who was headed south on Price Road was struck by a wrong-way driver headed north in the southbound lanes…A 23-year-old woman was driving the right way when she was struck by a northbound vehicle, according to Tempe Police Department spokesperson Natalie Barela. She remains in the hospital with serious injuries, according to police.
The wrong-way driver was a 17-year-old boy whom The Arizona Republic is not yet naming because he is a minor and has not been charged with a crime as of Wednesday afternoon. He sustained injuries that were not life-threatening and his case is being submitted for review by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Barela said…
The story doesn’t say how the driver was caught — but it’s heartening to see law enforcement keep after these dangerous criminals — hit and run is a felony in Arizona as I’m sure it is also in Colorado. Again, no legal details at this level but the end result was the driver was sentenced to 2.5 years. And, oh yeah, the driver was uninsured (of course).
According to the sparse details of the crash itself, on a Saturday afternoon in 2019, a van driver, Stephen Grattan, drifted from the lane onto a wide shoulder for unknown reasons (drunk? high? sleeping?), and struck the bicyclist from behind.
More vindication to this story that began in January 2020 cyclists-stay-to-the-LEFT? where, if you will recall, the bicyclist was incorrectly ticketed with an AFRAP (As Far Right As Practicable, 28-815) violation, and found responsible at trial, and dismissed on appeal in February 2021. The facts of the case were plain and undisputed: the bicyclist’s alleged violation was for not being AFRAP while stopped at a red light. Continue reading “Phx Police recommend officers be trained in bicycle law”
ADOT has released Crash Facts 2020 mid-year 2021, as usual. As was the case since 2018; I no longer need to order CDs but rather access the raw data online, in this case August 2021 (in very rare cases, the data will be updated after that).
Crashes were down dramatically due to pandemic’s affect on traffic
More vindication to this story that began in January 2020 