Mill Ave. closed for more investigation of death by Uber car
Tempe police on Tuesday night closed Mill Avenue to further investigate the fatal crash involving an autonomous Volvo operated by Uber that killed a pedestrian and shocked the self-driving-car industry more than a year ago.
The fatality drew headlines around the world, but 16 months later, prosecutors have yet to decide whether they will charge the driver of the autonomous vehicle for her role in the accident. They’ve already passed on charging Uber with a crime.
The accident happened the night of March 18, 2018, when one of many autonomous Volvos operated by Uber in Tempe was traveling north across the Mill Avenue bridge, south of Curry Road.
Pushing her bike across the street midblock was 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. Behind the wheel of the Uber was 44-year-old Rafaela Vasquez, who was supposed to take control in an emergency.
The car struck and killed Herzberg without ever braking.
Uber had disabled the emergencybraking capabilities to smooth out the rides, and Herzberg was not paying attention because she was watching a television program on one of her cellphones, according to reports from the National Transportation Safety Board and Tempe police.
Tempe police last year investigated the accident extensively, including reviewing video footage from inside and outside the car and phone records from Vasquez. The documents indicate police were seeking manslaughter charges against Vasquez.
Tuesday, police were back at the site of the crash.
“We are continuing our investigation into the Uber accident that occurred and were conducting a lighting study as part of that continuing investigation,” Detective Greg Bacon said Wednesday.
At least eight law enforcement officers, with four Tempe police motorcycles and three unmarked cars were parked on the Mill Avenue bridge south of the accident site.
One man drove a white Volvo XC90, like the one in the crash, northbound on the bridge, where the lanes were marked with cones.
The white Volvo, which did not appear to have the sensors Uber uses on self-driving cars, stopped at the site of the collision. The spot on the road appeared to be marked with a foam drink cup from Circle K, and officers took measurements with a tape measure set in the roadway.
Bacon said the department has no estimate when the results of the lighting test will be available.
Charges under consideration
After the accident, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office passed the case to Yavapai County for possible prosecution, citing a conflict of interest because the Maricopa County office had partnered with Uber on a ride-share campaign to encourage people not to drink and drive.
Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk eventually declined to prosecute Uber criminally, saying it was not likely to result in a conviction in the case. Her office then sent the potential criminal case against Vasquez back to Maricopa County.
Near the one-year anniversary of the accident, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said he was asking Tempe police to further investigate the crash.
Amanda Steele, a spokeswoman for Montgomery’s office, said the Tuesday tests were connected with Montgomery’s request.
“Once prosecutors receive a new submittal (from police), they will begin reviewing the case for a charging decision,” Steele said.
Montgomery said at a March news conference that his office wanted more data on the crash.
“We are asking the Tempe Police Department to conduct further investigation into the video itself,” Montgomery said. “One of the critical decision points for us will be to match up specific actions of the driver at specific points in the roadway in order for us to be able to properly asses the reasonable likelihood of a conviction with the evidence we will have.”
Accident avoidable, police said
The investigation last year by Tempe Police determined the accident was “entirely avoidable,” but prosecutors wanted more information.
Police conducted a simulation a few days after the accident. It indicated that a pedestrian and a bicycle would be visible from 637 feet to 818 feet away under the lighting conditions that evening.
Investigators later looked at the speed of the car, braking ability, lighting conditions and Vasquez’s half-second reaction time once she did see Herzberg.
Had Vasquez been paying attention, they found, she could have stopped the car 42.6 feet before the impact.
But Vasquez never touched the brake until after the crash.
According to last year’s investigation, the crash would not have happened even with a driver whose reaction time was twice as slow as Vasquez’s, had the driver been watching the road. But it would have been close.
Investigators determined that someone with a 1.25 second reaction time who pressed the brake would actually skid past the point where Herzberg was hit. But the extra time given to Herzberg from a braking car, rather than one traveling more than 40 mph, would have given her time to make it across the street and out of the vehicle’s path.
“For these reasons,” Detective Kasey Marsland wrote in the “avoidability analysis,” “the crash was deemed entirely avoidable.”
On the night of the accident, Tempe Officer Kyle Loehr tested Vasquez and determined she was sober.
“Vasquez exhibited none of the validated clues of impairment,” he wrote later. “Based on my training and experience, I made the determination that Vasquez was not impaired.”
Most of Vasquez’s responses regarding the autonomous car, her role as the driver and the capabilities of the vehicle were redacted in the video and written police reports that would come out later.
“This is kind of an interesting scenario, right?” Loehr said in video captured on body camera. “These are those automated cars, and kind of, the whole world is watching. It’s going to be one of those things like, there’s going to be a lot of people who review this.”