Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
10/11/2018 Thursday “morning”; victim 71 y.o. bicyclist Rick Ellwanger
Driver arrested suspected impairment. Wrong-way; hit-and-run; additional pedestrian victims.
On Friday afternoon police identified the suspect as 20-year-old Yanibra Moreno saying she’s being held on susp of 2nd degree murder and leaving the scene.
Continue reading “Wrong-way driver kills bicyclist on A-mountain”
9/23/2018 9:30am pedestrian 48 y.o. male Dana Machado was killed when a driver drove onto the sidewalk where the victim was walking his dog. Police arrested driver Richard Cruz on susp of DUI and are awaiting tox results.
Continue reading “Driver jumps curb, kills Mesa man on sidewalk”
There are tens of thousands of DUI arrests every year in Arizona; we rarely hear about any of these unless the person has some sort of celebrity, or unless they kill some people; examples of either case aren’t hard to find. Impaired drivers continue to account for a significant fraction of traffic fatalities (24% in 2016) amounting to hundreds of deaths in Arizona alone; victims are the drivers themselves, other drivers, passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Continue reading “DUI and the beat goes on…”
ped fatality in apt complex; victim 3 yo girl. Occurred in the parking lot of apartment complex near University Drive and Rural Road around 2 p.m. June 25, 2018
It’s been widely noted that AZ has a growing and worsening ped traffic fatality “problem”; fortunately this one doesn’t count (yes, this is sarcasm, but nevertheless true)… because it happened in a private lot, it’s non-traffic and as such doesn’t count as a traffic fatality; DUI or otherwise. (similar to e.g. little Daylin Garcia Enos who was killed in a Tucson apt complex parking lot by a backing UPS truck)
6/24/2018 around 4pm Baseline near 7th st, Phoenix.
From the probable cause statement:
The defendant was operating a motor vehicle in the area of 700 E Baseline road where he was traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes of Baseline Road. The def proceeded eastbound through the intersection of 7th street in the westbound curb lane of Baseline Road where he drove up onto the sidewalk along the north side of baseline road and struck the victim WHO WAS WALKING ON THE SIDEWALK…
5/8/2018 1:36pm Buffalo Soldier Trail just south of Garden Ave.
Bicyclist 71-year old David Alva was killed. The driver was arrested.
No particulars were given about the crash; I inferred the bicyclist was struck from behind. The road there is wide multi-laned, divided, arterial in addition to wide bike lanes. Continue reading “Driver arrested in Sierra Vista bicyclist fatality”
12/1/2017 ~ 1:30pm A SB driver 19th Ave near Broadway, Phoenix while speeding and illegally passing vehicles (i.e. driving SB in NB lanes), lost control and drove up on the sidewalk, killing 13 y.o. Cordell Gooch
Police say there were “early indications that the driver showed signs of impairment”
Holy sh!t, another one, I mean another jogger in Ahwatukee killed by a dangerous out-of-control driver… this is a small place. Freak “accident”? Two freak “accidents”?;
11/2/2017 ~ 4AM . Pedestrian / jogger killed on sidewalk near Lakewood Parkway and Amberwood Drive this is a collector road in a residential neighborhood. Police suspect driver was impaired, she was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Witnesses reported that the driver of the vehicle, 25-year-old Shannon Scott, was driving on the sidewalk when Hilts was struck”
Continue reading “Another Ahwatukee jogger killed on sidewalk: driver arrested”
10/29/2017 bicyclist killed in headon crash with wrong-way susp. impaired driver.
Summit Trail Road inside South Mountain Park, Phoenix. There were no specific location given, here is a sample of the Summit Road.
Continue reading “PD: Bicyclist killed by impaired driver at South Mountain park in Phoenix”
local story huge backup two dead mom/driver arrested on suspicion of
Saturday 10/21/2017 evening around 9PM. I-10 near Wild Horse Pass Blvd, just south of Ahwatukee /Chandler.
Are we safe yet?
Would more enforcement help?
Would wrong-way freeway detection have prevented this tragedy?
Answers: No, Probably, and No.
Continue reading “Driver arrested: deadly 5-vehicle crash on I-10 near Wild Horse Pass”
9/2/2017 Monday evening ~ 8PM. Police say impairment may be involved. Southern near Hardy. Two motorists died and a third is in critical condition.
Southern is one of Tempe’s series/network of high-speed arterial roads. High speeds are conducive to death. Pedestrians and Bicyclist do often become collateral damage, but motorists are the most frequent victims. Continue reading “2 Dead 1 Critical in Tempe Wreck”
Driver charged with endangerment and 2nd degree murder and in last week’s killing of Peter Rankin who was on the sidewalk. Medical reports say the driver had a BAC of 0.235, almost triple the legal limit (anything over .20 would be “super-extreme” DUI).
more here: pd-driver-hit-suv-killed-bicyclist-in-glendale-before-hitting-police-car
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Continue reading “Navajo Nation police officer charged with murder in deadly Glendale crash”
[update: 9/28/2017 — driver charged w/ 2nd degree murder]
Impaired drivers remain a serious threat to bicyclists. And pedestrians. And other drivers. And passengers.
9/22/2017 “just after midnight” Bicyclist (60-year-old Peter Rankin) killed incidentally when a suspected impaired, speeding driver (Kevin Richard Hevel, 30) sideswiped another vehicle; jumped the curb onto the sidewalk where he struck and killed the bicyclist, kept going (of course) and continued on to rear-end a Glendale police cruiser. Near 59th and Glendale Ave, in Glendale, AZ. Continue reading “PD: Driver hit SUV, killed bicyclist in Glendale before hitting police car”
A driver driving the wrong way on the freeway killed all four occupants of the other vehicle. Police have not revealed why they think driver was driving the wrong way, however, they did note that this year
“…DPS arrested 52 people suspected of driving the wrong way… Ultimately, each of the 52 drivers arrested was found to be impaired”.
So, 100% of wrong-way drivers were impaired. Wrong way driving appears to be an impaired driver problem. Continue reading “4 dead in I-17 wrong-way crash near Flagstaff”
“Keaton Allison, 21, had a BAC level of 0.25 percent, according to blood-testing results from the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner.” — azcentral
see more at 3-dead-in-wrong-way-wreck-i-17-phoenix Continue reading “Report: Wrong-way driver who killed 3 very high BAC level”