Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
Yikes. Police officer involved crash resulting in several serious injuries, including a motorist and people walking on the sidewalk. Anyways, lots of dollars. He was never charged, of course; despite speeding at 30+mph over the speed limit. Continue reading “Glendale officer’s deadly crash costs city $3.8 million”
Saturday night 2/12/2016 ~ 9:45PM. Victim Nina Hale, 68. 48th Street south of Ray Road, Phoenix (the “Ahwatukee” area of Phoenix).
Victim wasn’t in a crosswalk — case closed! I should admit right up front I have no particular idea of what actually happened. It is quite possible, likely even, that the driver was doing nothing legally wrong — i.e. they already said he didn’t seem to be impaired, and it’s likely he was driving within what is considered a reasonable speed — and the victim was doing “everything” legally wrong, because a pedestrian outside of a crosswalk must yield to any vehicles on the roadway. That said, this is going to turn into a rant about high-speed arterial roadway design so beloved by sunbelt traffic engineers… Continue reading “Woman killed crossing street in Ahwatukee”
T
he owner of the red Alfa Romeo convertible involved in the killing of a pedestrian on a Phoenix sidewalk in 2013 was found guilty of negligent homicide and leaving the scene of a fatality caused by the defendant. I have no idea what the defense was; but at the conclusion of the twelve-day trial, the jury also found an aggravating factor of dangerousness. Details at another-ped-gets-whacked-on-phoenix-sidewalk
Continue reading “Owner of Red Alfa found guilty of killing ped on sidewalk”
~ 8:15pm May 14(?), 2015. 34th Ave near Deer Valley Road, Phoenix. Double pedestrian fatality. This is very much a residential neighborhood. The victims were “having a roadside conversation” when the crash occurred. (Does that mean they were standing in 34th Ave? There are certainly sidewalks there).
Continue reading “Police: Speeding driver kills 2 on N Phx residential street”
All according to Phoenix police, the driver:
Continue reading “Police: Driver in fatal Phoenix hit-run was impaired”
Weekend roundup of drivers behaving badly in the Phoenix metro area; it must have been a rough Saturday night, 4 dead in 3 incidents early AM hours of Sunday 11/8/2015: Police say a speeding & impaired driver rear ended and killed 2 motorists in Avondale. Phoenix police says a pedestrian is dead after apparently intentionally stepping in front of a moving car — the driver, of course, hit-and-ran, police caught him soon after and say he appeared impaired. In the third story a driver crossed over and struck another vehicle head on; killing her. Continue reading “MCSO: Impaired, speeding driver kills 2 in Avondale”
Oct 20, 2015 Pedestrian fatality. According to police, the driver was speeding (“at speeds over 100 mph”) and lost control, crossed the center line, jumped curb and drove up on sidewalk; hit-and-run of course. Yes, again, see another-ped-gets-whacked-on-phoenix-sidewalk. This obviously happens regularly… Seriously, how often does this happen? Police are seeking Rudy Loyoza Jr., the owner of the vehicle, in connection with the incident.
Nissley was an impaired driver who killed a pedestrian, noted doctor Richard Pavese, on the sidewalk in 2010… seriously-how-often-does-this-happen !?
Yes, another sidewalk death caused by out of control drivers; Sunday 9/27/2015 — Seriously, how often does stuff like this happen?
According to the story, this was an apparent left turn 2-vehicle collision that sent two out-of-control drivers all over the place. The man who died, Juan Mena-Brito, is credited for shoving his wife to safety just before getting mowed down. 43rd Ave and Peoria, Phoenix, AZ. Continue reading “Out of control drivers kill man on Phoenix sidewalk”
[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”
Another ped whacked on a Phoenix sidewalk — seriously, how often does this stuff happen? — this time at Glendale and Central Ave, Phoenix. Austin Lipko-Benito was killed mid-day May 13, 2015 on the sidewalk along Glendale Ave. The crash occured because one of the drivers failed to yield to the other driver. Continue reading “Car slams into bus stop, teen bystander killed”
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”
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”
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.
July 12, 2014 / victim crossing in marked crosswalk w/traffic signal. The 5 y.o. female victim was riding a tricycle; this I would guess should be coded as a pedestrian (though i cross-tagged this article as both a ped and cyclist fatality). This is listed on 2014 cyclist traffic fatalities. [update: is coded as a pedalcyclist in both ASDM and FARS] Continue reading “Girl hit and killed when driver runs red light”