ARIZONA (ABC15) – The number of crashes and deaths on US 93 in Arizona toward Las Vegas is increasing.
13 Action News’ sister station ABC15 in Phoenix found that driving the 79-mile route from Milepost 199 in Wickenburg to Milepost 120 north of Wikieup can be a deadly gamble for drivers.
With around 10,000 cars a day and 248 accidents in 2019, the chance of wreckage is around one in 15,000 cars.
US 93 is the main route between Phoenix and Las Vegas. It’s also the suggested route for Interstate 11.
According to the Arizona Department of Transportation, more than $ 500 million has been spent on highway improvement in the past few years, including upgrading parts from a two-lane to a four-lane, split highway. Two lane road remains for approximately 34 miles.
A driver died Thursday morning in a frontal accident near Milepost 179, a two-lane stretch of road, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Soldiers said a Honda passenger car was traveling north on US 93 when the van drifted left of center into the south lane. The driver of the van died after colliding with a semi-trailer truck heading south. The highway was closed for several hours during the investigation.
ABC15 investigators spent weeks analyzing crash data, asking about ADOT highway improvement projects, speaking to first responders, and reaching out to victims’ families.
TROOPER PARTY CRASH
On April 30, the Good Samaritans rescued Soldier Casey Rhinehart from his burning police cruiser near milestone 174.
“I could hear the screaming,” said Russell Christensen, who stopped to help.
Carolee Ervien’s car was one of four involved in the accident. She was unharmed and was the first to reach Rhinehart.
“I was able to hold on to the top half of the door and open it wide enough to grab the soldier,” said Ervien.
“We fell everywhere just trying to drag him and take him away,” added Christensen.
It was 8:30 p.m. on a Friday and the crash was miles from the smallest town. It’s a place where cell phones and police radios have little or no service.
“The Good Samaritans had to drive away from the scene to make a phone call so DPS dispatchers knew they had a soldier who was down and needed help,” said Jeff Hawkins, president of the Arizona State Troopers Association.
Firemen from Congress came to examine seven victims.
You have treated mass victims on this highway before. Fire chief Virgil Suitor admits that his firefighter / rescue workers must make life and death decisions.
“We’re starting to work on the seriously injured patients – the ones we know will make it – and that’s all we can do,” Suitor said.
That night, Catherine Winegar, 43, from Tucson and Alexis Wilson, 23, from Chandler died. The soldier was flown to a trauma center and released from the hospital a few days later.
MOST DANGEROUS MOTORWAY IN AMERICA?
Memorial crosses on the roadside of US 93 show where people have died in accidents over the years.
According to ADOT and DPS, there were 35 deaths in vehicle accidents on the motorway from Wickenburg to Wikieup in the six-year period from 2015 to 2020.
There were several years of declining deaths in the area, then a sharp increase in 2020 when 9 people died.
Those who died include 2019 UPS driver Arthur Perez, Veronica Wood, who never made it to Goodyear in 2017, and brothers Jackson and Cameron Clark, ages 11 and 6, who were killed on a family road trip in 2020 were.
The congressional fire chief said there were too many impatient drivers and risky overtaking maneuvers.
“I can tell you that most of our wrecks continue to or within a mile of a passing zone,” said Chief Suitor.
ADOT improvement projects included expanding most of the 200 miles of US 93 that highway officials said should improve safety. Further improvement projects at the I-40 traffic junction in Kingman and the expansion to four lanes through Wickenburg are planned for the fall.
First responders told ABC15 that the wider, straight freeway was leading to higher speeds and that this would lead to various types of accidents.
“When it was two lanes, we saw more head-on collisions, now it’s rollover,” said Mike Love, battalion chief of the Williamson Valley-Baghdad Fire District.
“Every road we build or maintain meets federal safety standards, and the vast majority of accidents are due to driver behavior,” said ADOT spokesman Doug Nick.
ADOT crash data showed that there were a total of 181 crashes between Wickenburg and Wikieup in 2015. The number rose nearly 40 percent in four years to 248 crashes in 2019.
The response times of firefighters and ambulances also play a role in the danger of the highway.
If you crash near an area called Nothing at Milepost 148, the nearest medical aid is in Baghdad, where the Williamson Valley Fire District Station is nearly a 30-minute drive down a winding, hilly state road.
“In a perfect world, we have ambulances that can be reached within 10 minutes, no matter where you are,” said deputy chief Anthony Tunis of the Williamson Valley-Baghdad Fire District. “That’s not realistic. This is rural Arizona.”
The combination of deaths and long average waiting times for ambulances led consumer website Value Penguin to name the US 93 as the most dangerous highway in the US in 2018.
Enforcement road blocks
After earning the “Most Dangerous” nickname, the US 93 continued to see an increase in crashes and a decrease in traffic authorities.
According to an ABC15 analysis of the ABC15 analyzes filed with the Baghdad-Yarnell Judicial Court, criminal charges and tickets for civilian traffic fell significantly in the region in 2020.
The court’s jurisdiction in rural Yavapai County spans most of US 93 from Wickenburg to Wikieup, and historically, the majority of tickets filed in court have come from DPS soldiers.
The court’s criminal cases decreased from 677 in 2018 to 475 in 2019 and to 198 in 2020. The number of civil traffic applications declined by 960 tickets in 2020, compared to 1,602 tickets in 2019 and 1,485 tickets in 2018. It is unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic may have played a role in the decrease in enforcement, and the The number of traffic court files rose in early 2021.
The personnel of the soldiers in Wickenburg is so small that usually only one soldier is on patrol and often after 1 a.m. no soldiers are patrolling US 93 near Wickenburg.
“It’s not acceptable,” said Hawkins. “We as a state must offer better customer service. We must take care of our citizens.
Hawkins campaigns with lawmakers and Governor Doug Ducey for higher military salaries to help with recruitment. Hawkins pushed for a 12 percent raise to convince people to apply for one of nearly 300 soldier vacancies. He’s also pushing for upgrades to radio broadcasting in the region so that first responders don’t have communication gaps.
“We’ll find out when they released their budget, whether or not they are concerned about our Arizona roads,” said Hawkins.
DPS officials refused to be interviewed in front of the camera. An email said slowing drivers to US 93 was a high priority, and in March, a month before a vehicle hit Trooper Rhinehart, there was a target speed enforcement detail
First aiders urge drivers to reduce the effort by staying within the speed limit, waiting for overtaking lanes and stopping if they are drowsy.
This story was written by ABC15 investigator Melissa Blasius. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. ABC15 and 13 Action News are both owned by EW Scripps Company.
