Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
[UPDATES plea deal January 2017, then imprisoned due to probation violation Sept 2017]
Driver Wanda Snow House has been charged with hit-and-run in connection with the death of a pedestrian. According to police she “was driving in a bicycle lane on Dobson Road near West Canyon Way on Jan. 14 2015 when she hit a pedestrian, identified as Frances Johnston”. Continue reading “Driver charged w/hit-and-run in Chandler ped fatality”
Incident 9/5/2015
Man accused of hitting four U of A students faces 9 counts … Tucson Police believes Gerald Taylor, 45, ran through the crosswalk and hit four of the five students crossing. Investigators revealed that Taylor did not stop at the scene and continued driving. About two hours later, he turned himself in. Three children were in the car with him when the incident happened. One student is in the hospital with life threatening injuries. Two suffered serious injuries and one had minor injuries…
[ Update Sept 3: they seem to be implying this was not a vehicle involved, there was no hit-and-run, thus this was not a traffic crash, so I added the non-traffic tag, and am removing the hit-and-run tag. There is some sort of fairly deep ditch/canal(?) running in the median]
Sept 2, 2015. Police were notified of a dead body and nearby mangled bicycle in the median of Apache Trail near Ocotillo 8:30am. Though this is apparent hit-and-run traffic fatality, it’s not clear and the investigation will have to confirm.
Apache Trail near Ocotillo road has three lanes in each direction plus a BL. East and West are separated by a VERY wide median (I see ~ 65′ on google maps). Continue reading “Apparent hit and run bicyclist fatality in AJ”
names not yet released. 8/13/2015 ~ 1AM. Near 51st Ave near Southern Ave in Phoenix. Both driver and bicyclist were southbound.
Suspect vehicle is a white chrysler minivan with heavy passenger-side damage has been located and police have spoken with the registered owner. KPHO Continue reading “Phoenix bicyclist killed in nighttime hit and run”
The case of Trevor Clarke, an Ottawa Canada driver who was involved in a serious 2012 collision with a bicyclist while drunk, and then fled the scene raised quite a stir. According to news reports, the driver was convicted (by a judge, meaning this was for unstated reasons not a jury trial) in 2015 of “impaired driving causing bodily harm”, but was found not guilty of leaving the scene because the judge said. “I am left in a reasonable doubt about whether Mr. Clarke knew or was wilfully blind to having collided with a person, precisely because he was so drunk. He cannot, therefore, be convicted of this offence”. Continue reading “Knowingly”
Collision occurred near the east entrance of Walmart on Hunt Highway, San Tan Valley (San Tan Valley is in the far south-east Phoenix metro area) Friday evening May 22, 2015. The fatality victim was a passenger in a van that was rear-ended while stopped.
police say: the suspect(s) were impaired, hit-and-ran, hid evidence, lied to police…
Continue reading “San Tan Valley passenger killed in fatal hit and run”
There are tens of thousands of DUI arrests per year in AZ (39,746 in 2013 to be more precise). And that’s not counting the many of the over ten thousand hit-and-run drivers reported each year in AZ (11,402 in 2010 to be more precise), all of whom are criminals, thousands of them serious felons, few of whom are ever caught or charged. (hit-and-run from a collision with any injury is a felony, if the injury is serious or fatal the felony is likewise serious). Continue reading “Celebrity DUIs and other car criminals”
oh my. Alledged drinking / Percoset / aggravated DUI / child abuse, fleeing the scene, resisting…
That was the scene in Mesa on Tuesday 4/7/2015 afternoon.
Should this woman be driving? — I mean should she have a drivers license? Continue reading “Police: DUI suspect left Mesa wreck with victim on hood”
See man-killed-while-mowing-the-grass for background on the March 26, 2014 incident.
Correction (earlier rant removed): The hit and run involved the other alleged racing driver (Chavez), Gonzalez did not hit and run… Continue reading “Man Pleads Guilty in Street Racing Fatality”
Oops, more driving on the sidewalk. This happened sometime before Sunday morning, 3/1/2015 when I passed by. It seems like it was just a few days ago that someone drove up on the sidewalk and killed a bus stop; or just a few weeks ago that someone drove up on the sidewalk and killed a wall. What leads to this sort of behavior — I suspect it has something to do with dangerous drivers. Like I said before, it’s all fun-and-games until someone drives up on the sidewalk and kills a jogger.
Was this a hit and run? I always wonder.
I found it only because it appears in asdm data for 2014. I find nothing googling. Given the paucity of data this appears to must have be a missing hit-and-run mis-coding?? Continue reading “Bicyclist fatality in Marana Collision”
I had missed this one, and only found it when reconciling asdm data and searching on Yuma and Magnolia… There was both a police press release (laced with the a-word! Most police know better than that?) as well as a Yuma Sun article.
The cyclist was riding Eastbound on the North sidewalk (i.e. “counter-flow”) of 8th St; the driver was southbound on Magnolia — at the signalized intersection — and made a right hand turn (who had a red light? Is this another right turn on red error? (no, according to the investigation, see below); colliding with the bicyclist in the crosswalk. Continue reading “Yuma bicyclist killed in crosswalk collision”
[Update 4/8/2016: the update is there is absolutely no update on the suspect; it’s been over a year and half. Besides the hit and run, FARS has her at .12 BAC]
9/25/2014 12:23am. Hit run. Driver arrested, suspect intoxication. Suspect Nichole Jacinto. Victim 58 y.o. James Frankiewicz. Another news reports says was struck from behind in bike lane. The area appears to have a striped shoulder; it even goes on to be to the right of a RTO lane at Grant.
Location: southbound on Oracle Rd near Jacinto St. (yes, that is a coincidence; the suspect’s name is also Jacinto).
The most-detailed reporting is at bicycletucson.com
Continue reading “Tucson hit-and-run driver kills cyclist; woman arrested”
Friday 9/12/2014 ~ 9pm near McClintock and Apache, Tempe.
Victim was crossing mid-block; Jon Alguire. 29 y.o. suspect Justin Michael Gordecki booked on susp of hit-run, DUI and “False reporting to police” (hmmm?).
Criminal case CR2014144645; so far headed to trial 7/8/2015. It seems plain he is not going to be charged with the victim’s death (mid-block crossing), just a “simple” hit-and-run, along with probably a dui. Not sure what the holdup could be.
There was an additional unrelated ped-MV crash the same night in Tempe at Priest and University with “life-threatening” injury.
According to the azfamily/3 video report (sigh, that link is dead; the newpaper story is below) witnesses saw a company pickup vehicle being driven erratically along Apache Trail near 80th St in Mesa, swerving across 3 lanes of traffic, killing a bicyclist riding at the side of the road. Witnesses provided a license plate number for the fleeing vehicle, and police have arrested Derek Tinsley. Continue reading “MCSO: Man arrested in fatal East Valley hit-and-run”