Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ)
October 20, 2005
Edition: Final Chaser
Section: Gilbert Republic
Page: 1
Topics:
Index Terms:
ACCIDENT
COMMERCIAL TRUCKS, TRAILERS / POLICE TARGET UNSAFE VEHICLES
3 EAST VALLEY CRASHES IN 2 WEEKS UNDERSCORE HAZARDS
Author: Josh Kelley, The Arizona Republic
Article Text:
Three recent crashes in the Gilbert-Queen Creek area have again highlighted the danger that driving unsafe trailers and commercial vehicles can pose to motorists, and even to people sleeping inside houses.
The crashes, which occurred within a two-week period last month, killed a 19-year-old woman, closed Germann Road for hours and badly damaged a house with a man inside narrowly escaping.
In Gilbert, 8-year-old Henry Enrique Bega of Queen Creek died in March after an improperly attached trailer broke loose from a truck and collided with the car his mother was driving, according to police.
After that fatal accident, Gilbert police said they stepped up enforcement of safety regulations on commercial vehicles and increased efforts to educate truck drivers and owners about regulations.
In January, the Gilbert Police Department increased it's the number of officers trained to inspect commercial vehicles to nine after five officers completed a two-week state Department of Public Safety training course.
Now, officers continue to frequently inspect trucks and trailers for safety violations, said Lt. Kenny Buckland, who oversees the Police Department's traffic units.
He said it's difficult to tell whether violations are increasing, but Buckland emphasized that driving unsafe trucks or pulling unsecured trailers is a game of chance that can have serious consequences.
Officers ask follow-up questions when they find violations.
"We want to find out why they're doing what they're doing and correct that behavior," Buckland said.
The police department's goal, he said, is to reduce the number of commercial vehicles with safety violations driving on Gilbert streets.
"There's a lot of it out there, so it's going to take a lot of work," Buckland said.
In Pinal County, Ironwood Road northeast of Queen Creek has been a particularly treacherous two-lane stretch.
Last month, Queen Creek resident Darci Kim Linville, 19, died in an early-morning crash when the driver of a truck pulling a trailer of construction equipment lost control and hit her vehicle head-on at about 6 a.m., police said.
In August, another early-morning, head-on collision on Ironwood killed two Queen Creek men three miles north of Germann Road, just north of where Linville died, according to the Pinal County Sheriff's Office.
"It's an extremely busy, heavily traveled road," said Lt. Harry Grizzle of the Sheriff's Office.
He said deputies are being overtaxed by the massive traffic problems in the area, which are generated by a booming population with too few roads that don't have enough lanes.
He said commercial vehicle traffic has increased in Pinal County, including trucks carrying consumer goods and construction supplies.
But the Pinal Sheriff's Office has been awarded a federal grant that will pay the salary of seven deputies to perform commercial-vehicle inspections full time. Their work will likely focus mostly on state highways and interstate traffic, but enforcement areas will also be complaint-driven, Grizzle said.
The danger is not limited to the roadways.
In Gilbert last month, a trailer carrying a front-end loader broke loose from a truck after going over railroad tracks, police said. It crashed through the bedroom where a 44-year-old man was sleeping and nearly crushed him, but he escaped with minor injuries, police said.
Police cited the driver of the truck on suspicion of endangerment and improperly inspecting the truck and trailer, Buckland said.
Crash cases
Status of Gilbert traffic cases reviewed by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office:
* The County Attorney's Office has chosen to not press criminal charges against 31-year-old Angel Rocha Pantoja in the death of 21-year-old Rick E. Smith, according to Gilbert police. Smith, a Gilbert resident, died in April when Pantoja ran a red light and crashed into Smith's car at Williams Field Road and Val Vista Drive, police said. Pantoja was cited for two civil traffic violations: failure to stop for a red light and driving without an Arizona driver's license.
* The County Attorney's Office has yet to decide whether to press charges in the death in March of 8-year-old Henry Enrique Bega of Queen Creek, according to Gilbert police. Henry died when a trailer detached from a commercial truck and veered into oncoming traffic before colliding with the car his mother was driving in Gilbert. A Gilbert police report says that the trailer hitch had "loose and worn parts" and that the trailer's brakes were not set up to automatically activate in case it broke loose, as required by law. Two weeks before Henry's death in Gilbert, Mesa police found safety violations with the trailer's brake system and ordered it fixed, according to police.
* Gilbert investigators recommended that charges be brought against the trailer's owner, Gary L. Moore, 55, of Queen Creek, and the truck's driver, Omar Antelo Ochoa, 29. The County Attorney's Office has requested the medical examiner's report on Henry's death and is still reviewing the case, police said.
CAPTION: 1. A 44-year-old Gilbert man was nearly crushed when a front-end loader on a trailer broke loose from a truck. CAPTION: 2. Road danger CAPTION: Commercial vehiciles and trucks pulling trailers have caused three major traffic crashes in Gilbert and western Pinal County since Sept. 14, a trend that punctuates the dangers such vehicles can pose.
Copyright (c) The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
Record Number: pho120950262
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