Arizona crash that killed 2 cyclists likely accident

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The crash of a truck into a group of 20 bicyclists on a bridge that killed two and injured nearly all the rest of a Phoenix area cycling group appears to have been an accident, police said Monday.

The driver told officers his steering locked.

Goodyear Police Chief Santiago Rodriguez said the cause of the Saturday morning crash is under investigation. He said the driver told officers he was headed to work with materials he picked up for a job.

Authorities say the driver was 26-year-old Pedro Quintana-lujan.

“There is no indication that his was an intentional act or anything but an isolated incident,” Rodriguez said.

A charging document released by police Monday says Quintana-lujan told officers he was driving in the left of two northbound lanes when his steering locked and he drifted into the vacant right lane, then into the adjacent bike lane.

The document said the driver told officers “he let off the gas and regained steering control, then turned left and stopped in the middle of the bridge.”

It said reconstruction of the collision determined when Quintana entered the bike lane he also struck the concrete barrier that separates the roadway from a sidewalk, leaving black tire marks halfway up the wall and striking several cyclists.

Quintana-lujan was booked into Maricopa County Jail on Sunday on suspicion of two counts of manslaughter, three counts of aggravated assault, 18 counts of endangerment and two counts of causing serious injury or death by a moving violation.

One person remained hospitalized Monday in critical condition. The cyclists who died were identified as Karen Malisa, 61, of Goodyear, Arizona, and David Kero, 65, who was visiting from Michigan.