Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
12/17/2020, Thursday night (time not specified; also victim’s name not released). The driver of a Ford F-150 left the road near West Grant & North Oracle crashing thru a fence into a backyard striking and killing a person there, then ran away. Police think the driver may have been drunk.
Continue reading “Man killed by hit-run driver in Tucson backyard”
6/4/2020 7pm. A hit and run driver drove over the sidewalk and seriously hurt two women who were walking on the sidewalk in Old Town Scottsdale. Injuries are said to be serious, with one “fighting for her life”.
Police arrested a suspect, Allami Hussain, nearby a short time later.
Continue reading “Hit and run driver drives over two women on Scottsdale sidewalk”
5/6/2020 Wednesday around 11pm. The bicyclist was 61 y.o. Anthony Groth.
Driver was NB on 7th St; bicyclists was WB on Carol Ave. Police said the bicyclist failed to yield, (Carol Ave would have a stop sign). These directions were per fox10phoenix.com. The account at azfamily.com has a slightly different account, saying only that it was 7th Street “near” Hatcher. (Hatcher is parallel to and a few hundred feet south of Carol). So it’s not clear from the news statements whether or not it was at an intersection, or mid-block. The azcentral (Arizona Republic) has some apparent errors, sourced to the Phoenix Police spokesperson.
Continue reading “Man on bike hit and killed by car in north Phoenix”
For the Ahwatukee archives: April 2019 high speed chase ending in a five-vehicle crash and ensuing gunbattle; one federal agent’s truck careened over the curb and crashed through a wall.
Not exactly usual traffic but certainly not all that unusual — drivers jumping curbs, smashing lightposts, walls, killing joggers, etc. on a routine basis.
We see now, a year later, the now dead driver was severely impaired by drugs: “Only later, after an autopsy and toxicology report, was it revealed that she had near-fatal levels of methamphetamine in her body, which could have explained much of her [erratic] driving behavior…’The effect of methamphetamine would be related to increased risk-taking behavior, more aggressive behavior, potentially erratic driving,’ said Stripp, a forensic toxicologist … ‘They may speed, they may run red lights.'”
[by the way, this is just another incident where a driver drove up over the sidewalk. In this instance “only” a motorist was killed but obviously anyone on the sidewalk would have killed or seriously injured]
This is a historical/archive incident occurring nearly two decades ago… involving very fast driving as well as DUI, that as a result a Domino’s pizza delivery driver was killed. The claim that the delivery driver was at fault, he emerged from a driveway, for causing the crash did not prevent the fast & drinking driver from being convicted at jury trial of 2nd Degree Murder (and also hit-and-run).
July 4, 2001 just after midnight. Warner-Elliot, just S of Equestrian, Phoenix (Ahwatukee)
The crash involved 3 vehicles, a third driver: Weston Doyle, 17 of yellow mustang was allegedly drag racing Sucharew. Dolye lost control but didn’t hit either of the other cars and crashed into a block wall. Sucharew was charged with 2nd degree homicide and leaving the scene (hiding in a yard!), was driving a white eclipse and the victim was driving a red Mitsubishi. story lead section B on 7/5/2001. Traveling between 70 and 80mph… “Alcohol was believed to be involved, but a driving-under-the-influence charge will not be filed because of the homicide charge, police said” Continue reading “Drag racer convicted in fatal Ahwatukee crash”
A 31 year old man has become the first traffic fatality on the new section of freeway that opened in late December, just a couple of weeks ago. DPS reports that 31-year-old Josafath Rubio-Hernandez died while driving the wrong way on the freeway near Elliot Road and collided head-on with a semi-truck.
Police said they are still investigating if the driver was impaired. Most wrong-way drivers involved in fatal collisions are impaired (thought to be around 75%)
Continue reading “Driver dies in wrong-way crash on new Freeway”
Authorities have finally located and arrested suspect in the 2006 DUI death of Jason Wedo.
See earlier stories: suspect-still-on-the-loose-after-2006-fatality/
Ann Day is a prominent member of a prominent Pima county family; a former County Supervisor, and was the sister of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’connor.
Something is rotten in Pima County. It seems to me cases with very similar fact-sets (extreme speed and recklessness, DUI, causing headon) routinely go for manslaughter elsewhere. Continue reading “Driver who killed Ann Day gets less than 5 years”
Early morning head-on freeway crash SR51 near Indian School. The driver known only as a 27 y.o. man from Ohio was driving a (new?) Corvette the wrong way. Police think the driver may have been impaired. Really? You don’t say. The name hasn’t been released but expect aggravated assault charges when he’s released from hospital.
Two Tempe officers hurt in wrong-way crash on SR-51 in Phoenix
The Arizona Republic has been running a series of throwback stories from the files of report Don Bolles who was murdered in 1976, presumably related to mob investigations he was conducting.
This one, unrelated to mob, popped up this week Don Bolles files: The drunken crash that led to tougher Arizona DUI law
The quick synopsis was in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday 1971 a very drunk driver at .251 BAC killed 3 people and left a 4th person in a permanent vegetative state. He was portrayed as being not particularly remorseful. He ultimately served 6 months of a 1 year sentence for a guilty plea to misdemeanor manslaughter. Continue reading “The drunken crash that led to tougher Arizona DUI law”
Aug 20, 2019 ~ 8PM. The crash occurred near the intersection of East Frontage Road and North Starlight Drive, Prescott Valley. There were no details on the manner of collision.
Hit and run, bicyclist suffered serious injuries and died several days later on Aug 26. The suspect driver was book on suspicion of aggravated assault, etc.; hinting the police believe the driver was impaired and caused the crash. Now that the victim has died, charges would presumably be upgraded to a homicide.
Continue reading “Bicyclist dies after injuries in hit-run Prescott Valley crash”
This comes about a year after Arizona Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim was arrested and plead guilty to extreme DUI, emphasis added:
“The Chandler Police Department released a report on Wednesday afternoon detailing the traffic stop and arrest of Ron Minegar, the Arizona Cardinals executive vice president and chief operating officer, Saturday night on suspicion of driving under the influence… A 911 caller alerted police about a white Chevrolet Tahoe swerving and possibly speeding up to 60 mph, according to the report.
An officer stopped Minegar around 11:30 p.m. near Pecos Road and Arizona Avenue for speeding, failure to drive within one lane of traffic and driving within the bicycle lane “— azcentral 8/14/2019 Continue reading “Another Cardinals exec arrested susp of DUI”
7/9/2019 ~5PM McDowell Road near Higley; police say an eastbound driver drifted into the very wide bike lane and killed bicyclist Scott Purdie who was also eastbound. The driver was arrested due exhibiting signs of impairment.
Continue reading “PD: Impaired driver hit, killed man riding bicycle along Mesa street”
DUI has a new aggravation — wrong way driving — as of 2018. Presumably added in the recent years as wrong-way driving, which is almost always associated with impairment, seems to have become more common. (NTSB says official — FARS — stats are only 50%, however because of non-testing all drivers, the actual figure is “as high as” 75%)
This popped up in the news a few days ago; when police say driver Charles Tack was DUI, driving the wrong way, and involved in a (non-injury) collision on the Loop 202 freeway near I-10. Continue reading “DUI and wrong-way driving”
4/23/2019 ~ 11pm victim Thomas Taraba and another person were walking on the sidewalk along McDowell Road near 37th Street. Police say river 20-year-old Zachary Showers was the driver; he was arrested on suspicion of DUI
“According to court documents, Taraba was thrown 75 feet” indicating the driver’s speed was very fast, perhaps too fast for any city street. 12news.com. a few more details at fox10news.
Continue reading “Vision Zero PHX, was: PD: Driver kills man on sidewalk”