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.
Bicyclist killed in collision identified
Posted: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 10:30 pm
By Chris McDaniel
The Yuma Police Department has released the identity of the bicyclist killed Saturday night when he was struck by a flat-bed truck at the intersection of 8th Street and Magnolia Avenue…
At about 8 p.m., 62-year-old Leo Koivu was riding a bicycle eastbound on the north sidewalk of 8th Street towards the intersection of Magnolia Avenue. At the same moment, 21-year-old Danny Polanco — driving a green 2005 Ford F-450 flat-bed truck — was stopped in the southbound lane at the intersection waiting to turn right.
As Polanco began turning right, Koivu reportedly rode into the crosswalk and struck the passenger side of the Ford. The impact knocked Koivu down, and caused life-threatening injuries.
Koivu was transported to Yuma Regional Medical Center by emergency personnel and was pronounced deceased.
Polanco did not remain at the scene of the collision, but police were able to locate him the following day based on eyewitness reports. He was interviewed and has been released pending further investigation.
ASDM
I found this while corroborating the 2014 data, this is adot incident=2811451
The news reports, and police press release, indicate this was clearly a hit and run; however the database does not show that.
The police (and asdm) indicate the cyclist struck in a crosswalk and was at fault for FTY, and the motorist, according to the police did nothing wrong — even though it would appear the motorist had a red light (i.e. made a right on red; and failed to yield to “all traffic”).
Case lookup shows only one incident for a 21 y.o. Danny (or Daniel) TR-201201211; and that was in 2012 — though that may or may not be complete.
Here are definitions of hit-and-run. This incident should have been coded as such; and I fully expect it to be correctly coded into FARS as a hit-and-run. I spoke with the investigator: there was surveillance video involved which led to the identification and location of the vehicle and driver; not sure when they were located but it wasn’t right away. The investigator said the video and discussions with the driver gave them confidence that the driver was unaware of any collision, which I have to accept their assessment. However, this led them to say it was not a hit-and-run; I flatly disagree, it was obviously a hit and run. He also stated the video shows the driver had just gotten a green light; so, no, this wasn’t a right-turn-on-red error, according to the investigation. There was apparent drug-involvement with the cyclist.
FARS
FARS does (correctly) code it as a hit-and-run. queryFarsIncident.php?year=2014&st_case=40036 and otherwise seems consistent with ASDM and the news report.
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