Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
phew. Walking in the park and now you’re dead? Getting hit by flying debris from some speeding drivers causing a horrific, deadly crash? Seriously, how often does this stuff happen?
2026-04-08 ~8am. Just out for a nice walk in the park when… “LAVEEN, AZ (AZFamily) — A woman has died after police say she was hit by an out-of-control pickup truck while walking at a park in Laveen Wednesday morning.”
2026-02-08 Southbound Central near Elwood. Police say a the driver of a van veered to the right crossing into the separated bike lane, killing a bicyclist and continued up the curb and on to sidewalk. The driver fled the scene. Police say he admitted using fentanyl and continued on his way to purchase some more. Continue reading “Driver kills triathlete on Central in Phoenix”
2026-01-27 12:30a. Ug. A pedestrian was injured and a bicyclist was killed as a result of a driver, who was fleeing police at the time, crashing into them.
I assume, or hope, the DPS will be doing a thorough evaluation of the events vs. their protocols — the tragic outcome where un-involved people get hurt/killed a collateral damage during chases is exactly why police probably shouldn’t be doing high-speed chases in the first place. (Radios are MUCH faster than vehicles). The chase began at MP252 on I-10 which is a several miles away from the Speedway exit where the chase ended, and the driver was shot by police. Continue reading “Bystanders hurt/killed in high-speed chase I-10 Tucson”
11/16/2025 A bicyclist was killed when a driver ran a red light at an “activated” HAWK crossing at East Speedway Boulevard and North Richey Boulevard.
This is the only fatality I am aware of that has ever occurred at an activated HAWK crossing.
Police have already signaled there will be no serious charges (“The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene…” and “determined she was not impaired”. At the completion of TPDs investigation, it will probably be forwarded to the county attorney, who will decline charges, because that’s what they do when someone is killed by a not impaired driver. That will bring it back to the city attorney for consideration of misdemeanor (or civil charges, like just a traffic ticket). Continue reading “Bicyclist killed at Tucson HAWK crosswalk”
A couple of bicycle-adjacent fatal hit and runs…One was a scooter, and the other was a mini-bike (presumably, a motor-driven cycle; i.e. motorcycle). In the first instance, the criminal pickup driver is still at large and needs to be located; and involved a (electric, i guess?) scooter. I am not clear how scooter riders get categorized for crash data purposes (and it may be different for state ASDM, vs federal FARS, see change to FARS in 2022).
The second involved a “mini bike”, which should not be categorized as bicyclist.
Both incidents will be listed on the AZ cyclist fatality spreadsheet while we await official statistics. Continue reading “A couple of “bicycle-adjacent” fatal hit-and-runs”
Man charged in deadly US 60 crash will not be released from jail before trial. Case lookup reveals around TWENTY driving violations over the last ten years or so: speeding, bad lane change, etc, always including no license, no insurance… apparently escaped any sort significant punishment for his ongoing crimes.
8/12/2024 11:35p Cave creek near Dynamite.
Phoenix police are for whatever reason keeping the name of the driver a secret. This was 6 months ago; why no follow up? was anyone ever charged? good luck finding out because PPD won’t say.
This is way out there; I would have thought this was Scottsdale, but it’s city of Phoenix. The underage (for alcohol) driver is suspected of excessive speed and impairment; he may or may hot have been arrested(?). (Police normally release the name of someone who’s been arrested; investigation is ongoing in either case; whatever, not having the name of the suspect makes it difficult to look up outcomes. See this one for a driver who was arrested but name was never released; I had to dig it up by buying the police report)(orthisone.Whyasecret?) Continue reading “Bicyclist killed in Phoenix crash; driver suspected of impairment, speeding”
2025-02-11 856p Bicyclist was struck by an eastbound driver while ‘crossing’ Van Buren in the vicinity of 19th Ave, Phoenix.
While the term ‘crossing’ is confusing with regard to a bicyclist; it implies the bicyclist was behaving as a pedestrian (“pedestrian on wheels”), rather than operating vehicularly which may or may not be true. This area (sample location) has a profusion of driveways where vehicles (or bicyclists) may enter the roadway but only after yielding to traffic moving along the street (Van Buren). It makes little or no difference in determining fault; I point it out only because it makes it harder to categorize the crash… and Phoenix in particular does seem to have a lot of such crashes resulting in bicyclist fatalities.
Continue reading “Bicyclist struck and killed ‘crossing’ Van Buren”
Yikes.
Suspected DUI? of course. Hit and Run? uh huh.
Arizona has tough DUI laws, right? Don’t count on it. If the driver is found to be impaired, expect nothing more than a misdemeanor DUI. Possibly misdemeanor hit-and-run (as apparently there were no injuries, unless you count the driver’s bump on the head). Prosecutors seem to have no imagination. EnDANGERment? Naw. Continue reading “Suspected DUI driver crashes into Ahwatukee home”
2024-11-02 “early morning”. Mesa: Southern Ave just west of Gilbert Rd.
An SUV driver for unknown reasons left the roadway and destroyed his vehicle, seriously injuring a bicyclist who was on the sidewalk at the time.
Continue reading “SUV driver loses control drives on sidewalk causing serious injury”
This story is, um, interesting. These are not just felonies, assault on a minor is a going-to-PRISON level felony. It will be interesting to see what county prosecutors cook up, probably nothing, as we shall see. Continue reading “Fountain Hills man accused of assaulting kids on e-bikes”
11/12/2024 around 5:30p.
14-year old was retuning home from a MTB ride was struck and killed on Viewpoint drive near Manley, Prescott Valley.
A specific location wasn’t mentioned; from some of the new video, it’s in an area similar to this where the road is 1 lane in each direction with a very small paved shoulder, and then some gravel. [update on the specific location: as the comment below points out, the road was rebuilt more recently than the street view; the current sat view is, however, does show the current configuration]
Continue reading “Driver arrested: Teenager killed in PV by pickup driver”
10/6/2024 Sunday morning 7:45 College Ave near 15th St, Tempe. This is a very low speed (posted 25mph) collector street, with unusually wide bike lanes (6 feet or more?) here. Leading directly to the ASU campus, about a quarter mile away.
The driver of an SUV ran over 5 bicyclists on College Ave, hospitalizing several of them, with serious but not life-threatening injuries. Note to AzFamily caption writers: the vehicle was under human control, a driver ran over 5 people. Continue reading “Driver Arrested: runs into 5 Bicyclists on College Ave, Tempe”
8/10/2024 ~ 3am Pedestrian fatality; near 4th Street and Park Avenue, Ash Fork.
The street where this occurred, Park Ave near 4th, is a two-lane one way residential (there is a twin street a couple hundred feet away, Lewis, that goes the other way). This is a typical small rural town setup for the main route thru town. It’s just off the I-40.
It will be interesting to see if the driver is charged as an adult or as a juvenile. And if a juvenile, why do we let children drive cars?
The litany of very serious charges, e.g. manslaughter are unlikely to stick as it seems unlikely the person she killed would have had the right of way; unless they can prove something like the excessive speed (which seems unlikely).
She was probably driving on a graduated driver’s license which means it’s illegal to drive between midnight and 5AM unless with a parent; but that’s an inconsequential charge in the scheme of things.
The hit-and-run w/death charge is likely to stick but, despite being a serious felony doesn’t result in much in the way of punishment. Continue reading “16-year-old girl arrested after DUI hit-and-run crash that killed woman in Ash Fork”
July 28, 2024. Well, isn’t that special? Standing on the sidewalk? Hit and run? DUI suspected? Another Phoenix traffic fatality. Related: see Phoenix drunken driving deaths soared last year (as dui arrests decline).
This might get incorrectly tagged as a pedalcyclist crash; earlier versions of media stories had the headline as “Bicyclist killed in hit-run…” it should be pedestrian according to the description. I will carry it as a not-bicyclist on the fatality spreadsheet.
Continue reading “Man standing next to bicycle killed during hit-and-run crash in north Phoenix, suspect arrested”