Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
You are not safe; you are not safe driving in a car; you are not safe riding in a car; you are not safe in the daytime; you are not safe walking on the sidewalk; you are not safe riding in a bike lane; you are not safe riding a bike on the sidewalk; you are not safe riding in a “protected” bike lane. You are not safe. Continue reading “Passenger dead, driver arrested in Gilbert Rd single-vehicle crash”
The case grinds on; police say the driver involved in the “autonomous” uber-pedestrian death in 2018 was watching TV instead of watching the road. Prosecutors (finally) brought negligent homicide charges in 2020. The current news item of interest is the driver has recently rejected an offer which would entail the driver pleading guilty to the charge in exchange for it being treated as a “non-dangerous” felony. That would, almost certainly, result in a sentence of only probation and no incarceration. Continue reading “Driver in fatal Uber crash rejects plea deal”
Tuesday afternoon 3/22/2022 5:30pm.
Mesa police say 21 y.o. driver Gezane Izreal Cabanillas-Lape was speeding at ~ 100mph along Main street (aka Apache Blvd) at Windsor and struck a minivan; killing both elderly occupants. Police arrested the driver on susp of 2nd degree murder, along with agg assault due to his passenger’s injuries, the news item mentions that impairment is not suspected.
Continue reading “Speeding driver kills two in east Mesa; arrested”
Saturday March 19, 2022 9:45 a.m. Suspect arrested; 26 y.o. Ryan Machado; Manslaughter, driving under the influence, leaving scene of a fatal, etc.
Continue reading “Hit run driver kills two on Sunrise Drive”
Joining the “seriously, how often does stuff like this happen?” file.
Answer is with alarming regularity.
No one is safe from traffic violence.
12/17/2021 7:30AM Pedestrian was walking along Cornell near Forest; this is the neighborhood adjoining Kiwanis park in Tempe. This is a residential area, traffic engineers would call Cornell Drive “collector” street.
The driver, of course, fled the scene. He was later arrested for susp of hit-and-run, and manslaughter and a few other things. Continue reading “Man drives up on sidewalk, killed pedestrian in his Tempe neighborhood”
A phrase you’ll often hear connected with these sorts of incidents is the victim(s) were in the “wrong place at the wrong time”. Well it seems that the wrong place is anyplace; and the wrong time is anytime morning noon or night.
About a week ago, Pima County “Administrator Chuck Huckelberry experienced life-threatening injuries after a driver of a car made an unsafe lane change and collided with another vehicle that caused it to careen into Huckelberry as he rode his bike…” tucson.com Incidentally, the driver was apparently charged with a 28-672, a criminal misdemeanor; the news story refers only to a “citation” which while true isn’t the usual nomenclature. Continue reading “Driver kills man at south Phoenix bus stop”
5/31/2021 Monday night. Phoenix police officer killed by reported red-light runner Police say the driver of a sedan ran a red light, apparently at extremely high speed, causing an apocalyptic crash with a Phoenix police full-sized SUV at the intersection Cave Creek Road & Greenway Parkway. Both drivers are dead; the sedan driver was identified as “31-year-old Christopher Castro, died at the scene. Police say speed and impairment by Castro are believed to be contributing factors to the crash… The force of the crash caused the officer’s vehicle to crash through a brick wall and into a gas station parking lot.” Continue reading “Police: Driver that killed officer ran red light”
Well, this is unusual — a pickup driver crossed over (driving in the wrong direction) and rammed a large group of bicyclists who were participating in the Bike the Bluff, an organized ride (it’s actually a full-blown race, apparently) in Show Low, Arizona.
Continue reading “Show Low driver rams bicyclists, 7 critical”
6/9/2021 ~ 2:30AM Alma School near Galveston, Chandler, AZ
Police say that the hit-and-run suspect vehicle is a Dodge Ram, found nearby, and arrested 48-year-old Ryan Sean Pereira. The dead bicyclist was identified as 40-year-old Joseph Theodore Kowalczyk
Continue reading “Bicyclist dead along Alma School; pickup driver arrested”
5/28/2021 ~ 7PM. The driver of a tow truck struck a group of six cyclists at the intersection of Butler and Beaver, Flagstaff. The driver was arrested; presumably because police say at the time he ran a red light, while the group of bicyclists was proceeding on a green. One bicyclist, Joanne Wheaton, was killed, and four or five others were injured. Continue reading “Police ID truck driver accused of killing 1 bicyclist, injuring 4 more in Flagstaff”
The driver of a white pickup careened onto the sidewalk, striking two ASU students walking on the sidewalk, injuring one seriously; the driver fled.
DUI remains a huge threat/problem; are we doing enough to remove illegal drivers from the road? The man arrested was FTA (failure to appear) since Jan 2020 on a November 2019 DUI and driving (then) on a suspended license which was suspended for yet another DUI. Continue reading “Driver rams into two on sidewalk at Rural and Apache; suspect arrested”
2/15/2021 ~ 4PM. Driver was sb on 98th St at Broadway Rd and failed to yield at a stop sign to a motorized bicyclist wb along Broadway. The motorized bicyclist sustained life-threatening injuries. The driver fled the scene, a neighbor recognized the car, and MSCO deputies made an arrest. Continue reading “hit and run in East Mesa; driver arrested”
2/18/2021 One bicyclist was killed and another injured and taken to hospital when a driver “veered” into a BL along Legacy Blvd, near scottsdale Road, Scottsdale (here’s a sample google street view of the area; location not exact). Continue reading “Driver veers into Scottsdale Bike Lane; kills woman and injures man”
Drivers tend to lie after doing something bad.
Also of interest, it’s normally the left-turners “fault”; in this instance the left-turner is dead, but when the other (going straight ahead) driver is doing something horrendously wrong, charges can crop up. See e.g. bad-drivers-and-friendsofcalholman-com
Continue reading “Police arrest driver in high-speed crash that killed 2”
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”