non-traffic – Page 2 – Arizona Bike Law

6 y.o. killed in parking lot backing crash w/UPS truck

April 4(?), 2015 ~4pm. Daylin Garcia Enos, 6/M killed after crashing with a backing UPS truck in a large apt complex in Tucson.

This is presumably a non-traffic incident, because of where it occurred, on private property; it won’t be reflecting in official traffic statistics… as a result it’s hard to know how common non-traffic MV fatalities/injuries are. They seems to be more common than I would have thought. Bicyclist Richard Leon was killed on a private street just this past November. Follow the non-traffic tag for a collection of these. Continue reading “6 y.o. killed in parking lot backing crash w/UPS truck”

Tucson bike-train plus MV-ped in unrelated fatal collisions

There were two transportation-related fatalities in Tucson this past weekend…

Man riding mountain bike struck and killed by train
A 20-year-old man was struck and killed by a train on Saturday (2/14/2015) afternoon. According to a Tucson Police Department press release Jorge A. Villalobos was riding a mountain bike north along the train tracks near the Rillito River and Interstate 10.
TPD said Villalobos began riding on the bridge crossing the Rillito River. A train was also heading north on the tracks…. — bicycletucson.com

This would be a non-traffic fatality; both because it wasn’t on the road (it was on a train bridge), and because train fatalities don’t count toward as traffic. Continue reading “Tucson bike-train plus MV-ped in unrelated fatal collisions”

Man dies after crashing truck into Glendale barbershop

Check if this is a “traffic” fatality…. Crashes on private property “don’t count” as traffic crashes; however if the “unstabilized event” first occured on the public road, then it should.

Tuesday 12/2/2014 ~ 2:20am. Glendale Ave near 59th Ave, Glendale, AZ. Ford (appears to be an F-150) white pickup. Victim: Sean Brannen, male 47. Continue reading “Man dies after crashing truck into Glendale barbershop”

79 y.o. Bicyclist killed in gated-community car crash North of Tucson

[because of the obvious mis-codings (UNKNOWNS that are obviously known, in both asdm and FARS I’m tagging this missing hit and run, not because it was a hit and run, just to make it easier to find mis-coding ]

[ Update — as things turn out, this does appear in both asdm and FARS data for 2014, but i’m not sure why; since it was private roads? For comparison purposes, check out this one from Mesa 2013 that did not appear in the data]

11/7/2014 ~ morning time “(PCSO) said the man was riding eastbound on Hawks Wing Drive, when he was struck by a car heading southbound on Mooncrest Drive” Hawks Wing Dr, which has a stop sign, is on the stem of a T intersection with Mooncrest. [google maps]

The 79 y.o. male victim’s name is Richard Hayward Leon.

These are both residential streets; and the location is within a gated-community, which makes this highly unusual.

That it is on private streets probably means this is a “non-traffic” traffic fatality — that it won’t count towards traffic statistics, and will not be entered into ADOT traffic collision database, nor will it be reported to FARS when the time comes. This somehow seems wrong, so I want to make note of it and keep an eye out. Continue reading “79 y.o. Bicyclist killed in gated-community car crash North of Tucson”

Non-traffic traffic crashes

This is a placeholder for info for what I am referring to as a non-traffic (you can click there to get a list of incidents like this) traffic crash. Which I define as some sort of traffic crash that doesn’t get reported in official traffic crash stats. The most common reason these incidents might fall into this category is they occur on private property, like a parking lot, or private streets, like cyclist Robert McCain who was killed in a collision on a private street, or inside a building driver-slams-into-day-spa-1-dead-4-go-hospital. Other reasons, especially for cyclists, is for crashes “count” they have to include at least on motor vehicle in transport; so e.g. a cyclist crashing into a parked vehicle is not counted; nor are cyclists who have “simple” falls, or bike-bike crash, even when resulting in death (for example in 2014 see Karl Gerschutz and Jim Walen fatalities, respectively). Likewise bike-bike, or bike-ped crashes are not reportable as traffic crashes. Continue reading “Non-traffic traffic crashes”

3 year old killed in Mesa parking lot by hit-and-run driver

[Updated 7/8: victim is 3 year old Jaqueline Monroe-Mendoza; police are processing two potential suspect vehicles, a white Chevrolet Suburban and a large white pickup, and have a “person of interest” and so far no arrests have been made. This story makes plain the collision occurred in the apratment’s parking lot azcentral.com]

Sunday July 6, 2014. 2pm. Near Alma School Road and Rio Salado Parkway in Mesa “struck by a large vehicle traveling through the parking lot”. Continue reading “3 year old killed in Mesa parking lot by hit-and-run driver”

Scottsdale Golf-Cart Shuttle Crash

First off; this has nothing whatsoever to do with a bicycle. This is interesting in light of the pedicab crash last year (golf carts apparently are being used to provide non-taxi shuttles in the immediate downtown area); and also wondering if this will generate an ACR? (Arizona Crash Report). I assume it would but you never know. For example, two of last year’s (see 2013 grid) bicyclist fatalities did not result in an ACR for various reasons; one a bike-MV collision on private streets, and another bicyclist hit-and-run with an ATV. An ACR is generally required if a crash involves at least on motor vehicle on a “trafficway”… see do-all-crashes-count for more. Continue reading “Scottsdale Golf-Cart Shuttle Crash”

Cyclist, 78, killed in late-night (2013) Mesa crash

Incident occurred 2/26/2013. This is a so-called “non-traffic” fatality — presumably due to it being on private streets, this appears to be a trailer park. As such, this death doesn’t “count” towards the official crash stats, listed at arizona-crash-facts-2013, and will also presumable be suppressed from counting in FARS. What is the real, total traffic death toll? See the tag non-traffic for more of these; I think initial reaction is there are vanishingly few, but perhaps it’s not as rare and uncommon as all that? Continue reading “Cyclist, 78, killed in late-night (2013) Mesa crash”

Another stroller death; Toddler killed in Phoenix Walmart parking lot

incident 1pm Thursday March 20, 2014 on a “private access road” near 75th Avenue and McDowell Road in Phoenix . Hints from the news story indicate this will likely be a non-traffic death (occurred “on a private access-road”) — meaning this could be one of the many automobile deaths that aren’t counted in the official statistics. Around 32,000 Americans are killed each year in traffic collisions –according to official statistics — how many more are there? [UPDATE: contrary to what I wrote at the time, this incident DID make it into FARS, incident 40170 ; I didn’t look these up but PEDCTYPE: 770 / PEDSNR: 4a / PEDCGP: 750; also of note, the PBPTYPE was “Pers Convey”]

No names released (so will be, of course, difficult to follow up on); only ages: dead is a 3-year-old boy, slightly injured is a female babysitter; the driver is a 22-year-old man. The business about drugs seems highly speculative and the likely investigation outcome will find this to have been an unavoidable “accident” — meaning for some reason the driver, despite what obviously must have been limited sight-distances, wasn’t expected to simply drive a little more slowly. Why not? Continue reading “Another stroller death; Toddler killed in Phoenix Walmart parking lot”

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”

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”

Driver slams into day spa; 1 dead, 4 go hospital

[Updated; as expected/suspected this death and injuries DO NOT appear in official crash records from ADOT, nor will they appear in the FARS when that is released. See this comment for how I checked asdm]

9/27/2013. A story like this, besides being a tragedy, tends to make headlines (even going national, usatoday.com story) but, Seriously, how often does stuff like this happen? Apparently regularly; like the shopper killed inside a Tucson convenience store in July…. or… 11-year old boy dead in a Phoenix parking lot in May… or … 2 Dead in Phoenix after pickup slams into bus stop in March… or… 1 Dead at a Peoria Walgreens sitting on the bench in front of store in 2010… This is just what i noticed reading the paper; These were all in the recent past, just in Arizona. This is not a complete list! ha. Continue reading “Driver slams into day spa; 1 dead, 4 go hospital”

Arrest made in boy’s hit-and-run parking lot death

[Update: Driver Mabior Ding, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years supervised probation, as part of a plea deal; charges of manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal collision kpho.com. There is/was some suggestion or confusion that leaving the scene cannot apply to private property?? Also notable, this incident does NOT appear in official traffic records; perhaps because it was private property(?)]

Phew, the horrendous news just keeps on coming
An 11-year old boy was killed May 25(?), 2013. The driver initially tried to help the victim, but then fled the scene. The boy was walking with his mother in the an apartment complex parking lot when he became pinned to a cinder block wall by a driver backing up. Killed while walking in a parking lot? Seriously, how often does stuff like this happen? Continue reading “Arrest made in boy’s hit-and-run parking lot death”

Do all Crashes “Count”?

sigh. File this under seriously how often does this happen, and ‘are cars dangerous’?

A man steps out the front door of his local CVS and gets mowed down on the sidewalk. Dead. One of the news reports said police believe the un-named female driver mixed up the gas and brake pedals. oops.

69-year-old man hit, killed by car in Sun City CVS parking lot

by Jane Lednovich – Jun. 27, 2012 10:07 AM The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team

A 69-year-old man was pronounced dead after he was struck by a car Wednesday morning in Sun City, a Sheriff’s Office official said.
The four-door sedan was making a U-turn in the parking lot of a CVS pharmacy near 107th Avenue and Bell Road about 8 a.m., authorities said.
The car drove onto the curb in front of the store and ran over the man, pinning him under the front wheel of the car, Maricopa County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Brandon Jones said.
The sedan hit a parked car after striking the man, Jones said. Firefighters used airbags to lift the sedan and get the man out, but paramedics were unable to revive him, Jones said.
Witnesses told authorities the man was unresponsive while he was trapped under the car. It is unclear how long he was trapped. The CVS store is closed while officials investigate the scene, Jones said.

yourwestvalley.com has a picture showing the silver car that struck the ped at rest on the sidewalk; along with a red car that was also struck.

SUN CITY, AZ (CBS5) – A man has been killed after he was hit by a car while walking out a CVS pharmacy in Sun City, according to authorities. Sgt. Brandon Jones with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said preliminary reports are that a woman driving a tan vehicle was heading eastbound in the parking lot Wednesday morning when she decided to make a U-Turn and accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes, causing the car to accelerate. The vehicle ran over a 69-year-old man and hit a red car parked in the lot. Jones said officers found the man trapped under the tan vehicle about 20 feet from the front doors of the CVS. Once the man was pulled from under the vehicle, he was pronounced dead. The driver of the red car was not hurt. Jones said the driver of the tan vehicle has not been charged at this point. Investigators said they do not believe alcohol or drugs were a factor.

Reporting Motor Vehicle crashes

There are a bunch of rules about when traffic crashes must be reported. This bears on how collision and injuries get measured and reported for statistical purposes.

Arizona Statutes

There are statutes that spell out, at a minimum, what all law enforcement agencies in Arizona must report on, reports must be filed with “the Department” (i.e. ADOT). ADOT then collates and tablulates this data — see adot-traffic-collision-database. Somehow or other ADOT forwards this the feds for national statistical purposes, for example, in the case of fatalities see FARS.

ARS §28-667 Written accident report; definition says that any “law enforcement officer or public employee who, in the regular course of duty, investigates a motor vehicle accident resulting in bodily injury, death or damage to the property of any person in excess of one thousand dollars or the issuance of a citation shall complete a written report of the accident” (667A) and that the agency employing the officer “Shall immediately forward a copy of the report to the department of transportation for its use” (667C5). Continue reading “Do all Crashes “Count”?”