HUSKER 37
All-American
Man struck by cars
Thought I was having a bad day..My usual 1/2 hour commute took 2 hrs...
Thought I was having a bad day..My usual 1/2 hour commute took 2 hrs...
Man struck by cars, killed on I-10 ID'dby JJ Hensley - May. 29, 2008 08:46 AM
The Arizona Republic
The pedestrian who caused the massive logjam on I-10 Thursday morning was identified as Byron Yellowhair, Department of Public Safety officials said late Thursday afternoon.
The fatal car-pedestrian collision clogged several Phoenix freeways and surface streets during the morning rush hour.
Yellowhair, 24, of Mesa, was apparently weaving in and out of traffic lanes as he walked away from his disabled car in the westbound lane of I-10 near 24th Street, said Sgt. Harold Sanders, a DPS spokesman.
At least five drivers struck Yellowhair, though many more cars and trucks drove through the accident scene.
“I'm not sure a lot of the drivers even realize they ran over the dismembered parts of the pedestrian,” Sanders said.
Early morning commuters began calling operators shortly before 4:30 a.m. to report a pedestrian on the highway, Sanders said, and a few minutes later those calls were reporting that cars had struck the pedestrian.
Investigators were beginning to put together what happened by Thursday morning, including where Yellowhair came from. But the complexity of the scene, with Yellowhair's body ‘thoroughly destroyed', according to Sanders, led to conflicting reports.
Westbound I-10 was closed during the entire morning rush hour because of the investigation into the deadly accident, which created massive backups not only on I-10 but other area freeways linked to the I-10 and surface streets leading into the downtown area.
Traffic was diverted from I-10 to surface streets Thursday morning and the surface streets, in this case Broadway, were jammed as people made their way into town. A pedestrian walking along I-10 westbound early Thursday morning was struck by several vehicles.
