Bicycle Friendly

**Update**

After the collision between Pima County Administrator and bicyclist Chuck Huckleberry and an automobile on October 23, 2021, we were hoping the City of Tucson "leadership" would acknowledge the fact the City of Tucson is not safe for bicyclists. We were hoping that with this incident, Mayor Regina Romero and Tucson City Council Members would at least acknowledge the tragic story listed below. Nope, it appears they still don't care. That's okay, we'll update this incident anyway.

We were made aware of this incident and decided to look into it. It involves the tragic and 100% avoidable death of a Tucson bicyclist. We at Tucson's Corrupt Leadership.com were shocked that this was ignored. We conducted a public records request and received the police report and crime scene photos. We hand-delivered all of the information below to Mayor Regina Romero's office (except for the letter to Councilor Nikki Lee). No one from Tucson's City Government would publicly acknowledge this tragedy so we sent all of the information below to Councilor Nikki Lee (via US Mail) as this occurred in City of Tucson Ward 4. Our purpose for exposing this story is to hopefully get accountability from our elected officials, not to publicize or politicize this loss of life. The victim's name has been removed, and all of the selected crime scene photos have been redacted.

Thank you for reviewing this information.

July 10, 2020

Mayor Regina Romero

City of Tucson

255 W Alameda St

Tucson AZ, 85701

Dear Mayor Romero,

I write to you today as a tax payer, a registered voter, a denizen of the City of Tucson, and an avid bicyclist. Like you, I believe all life is precious and the only thing more tragic than the loss of a human life, is the loss of a human life that is 100% avoidable.

A recent incident that occurred in your city has compelled me to contact you with a question: Do you believe the City of Tucson is a bicycle friendly community?

I am referring to the tragic death of a Tucson bicyclist on May 24, 2020 on Tucson’s East Side. The victim rode his bicycle through City of Tucson/ Tucson Water property that was under construction. As he rode through this area he crashed into a concrete hole. He did not survive. This incident was investigated by the Tucson Police Department and documented under case number 2005240174. This report states that, where the victim lost his life, “there were no signs in the area or cones indicating holes in the ground.”

I have enclosed a copy of the police report and the photos of the scene taken by Tucson Police Crime Scene and patrol officers. I urge you to review them. I requested that the photos not show the victim. TPD redacted all of these photos except for one, presumably by mistake. This one photo, to me, illustrates how tragic and needless this loss of life really was. The placement of four traffic cones certainly would have saved this man’s life and it would’ve taken about 30 seconds out of a city worker’s day.

I have discussed this tragedy with several members of Tucson’s bicycling community as well as an owner of a bike shop. Everyone I spoke to was not only disgusted at the carelessness, or the legal term, negligence, that cost a human life. They also wondered why no one from the City of Tucson has accepted responsibility for this tragedy. No one has even acknowledged it occurred.

Maybe the death of this victim didn’t fit any of the right narratives or maybe this is just a tragedy that can’t be politicized. Again, this is a regular guy out for a bike ride on a Sunday. He wasn’t bothering anyone, he wasn’t breaking any laws, his only mistake was riding through an area that should’ve been secured by the City of Tucson. Your city, Mrs. Mayor.

I am fully aware you do not work for the Tucson Water Department. However, you also don’t work for the Tucson Police Department and that did not stop you from publicly voicing your opinion on how to run a police department and making demands for changes, did it?

Mayor Romero, you are the elected leader of this city. You were not drafted into this position, you ran a campaign because you thought you were the best person for the job. This city is ultimately your responsibility. Like many Tucsonans, I am growing very tired of our “leaders” who are in charge of everything, yet responsible for nothing. I hope this tragedy is addressed, or at least acknowledged.

I thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

James M Voss

August 28, 2020

Councilor Nikki Lee

Tucson City Council/ Ward 4

8123 E Poinciana Dr.

Tucson, AZ 85730

Dear Councilor,

I write to you today as a tax payer, a registered voter, a denizen of the City of Tucson, and an avid bicyclist. I would like to bring to your attention the tragic and 100% avoidable death of a bicyclist in your ward on May 24, 2020. I was made aware of this incident and I decided to look into it. I have to say I was shocked that the news of this incident was not more widespread. I certainly did not want the death of this victim to be publicized or politicized, but I did expect someone to step up and at least acknowledge this very avoidable tragedy. I was wrong.

I decided to conduct public records requests to obtain the Tucson Police Department case report as well as the crime scene photographs. When I received the requested information, I wrote a letter to Mayor Regina Romero asking why the City of Tucson has not acknowledged this tragedy. I hand delivered this information to Mayor Romero’s office on July 10, 2020. As I have yet to hear anything about this incident, it is clear to me that Mayor Romero lacks the political courage to acknowledge this tragedy that occurred on City of Tucson/ Water Department property. I have enclosed a copy of the TPD case report, the crime scene photos, as well as the letter I wrote to our mayor. I urge you to review this information.

As I stated earlier, I am an avid bicyclist. Many of my friends and coworkers are bicyclists. Everyone I have spoken to, without exception, have expressed anger over this tragedy. I ride all over Tucson whenever I can. I usually end up talking to fellow bicyclists before and after my rides. I have asked many of them if they had heard of this tragedy. I have yet to run into anyone who has heard of it. When I describe the circumstances and the scene, they are all furious.

I hope you can shed some light on this avoidable loss of life. I, along with the bicycling community of Tucson, would like answers.

I would also like to thank you for your vote to maintain the funding to the Tucson Police Department. As I am sure you know, Tucson continues to become more and more violent. I appreciate the brave men and women of law enforcement who rush to be the thin blue line between my family and the violent criminals who prey on the innocent.

Sincerely,

James M Voss

We compared this incident to the Carlos Ingram-Lopez incident. If a guy who is terrorizing his grandmother while flying on cocaine, dies of a cocaine overdose in police custody is "worth" nearly $3 million dollars, what would the City of Tucson do to make this right?

Whelp, the answer is nothing. As you can see, the City of Tucson has generated a Risk Management Number of 201422. Also, as of February 22, 2021, no payment has been made to the victim's family. At least Risk Management is acknowledging that this incident actually happened and that this man was a victim.

We'll keep going. Stay tuned...

Bicycle Friendly

Police Reports

Tucson PD Crime Scene Photos