Coverage spread: 2 sources — 2 unrated
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- Both incidents occurred along Thomas Road in central Phoenix.
- Phoenix police are the investigating agency in both cases.
- Both crashes resulted in serious or fatal injuries requiring hospitalization.
Where they differ
- 12 News covers only the hit-and-run pedestrian crash near 35th Avenue and Thomas Road, with minimal detail beyond location and injury severity.
- AZFamily covers a separate, unrelated fatal crash near 19th Avenue and Thomas Road, including the victim’s name, age, and cause findings.
- AZFamily notes police initially gave inaccurate information (saying two men were hospitalized) before correcting the record to identify one victim as a woman, Leonor Gonzalez.
Phoenix has seen two distinct, unrelated traffic incidents along Thomas Road in recent days: a suspected hit-and-run near 35th Avenue that critically injured a pedestrian, and a fatal intersection crash near 19th Avenue that killed a 77-year-old driver a week after the collision.
What happened in the hit-and-run near 35th Avenue and Thomas Road?
A pedestrian was seriously injured in a suspected hit-and-run crash in central Phoenix near 35th Avenue and Thomas Road, according to 12 News. Details beyond the location and the severity of the injury were not provided in the available reporting, and it’s not known whether police have identified a suspect vehicle or driver.
What happened at 19th Avenue and Thomas Road?
A separate crash on Aug. 24, just after 11 a.m., prompted multiple 911 calls to the intersection of 19th Avenue and Thomas Road, AZFamily reported. First responders pulled two people from one of the vehicles involved and rushed them to the hospital in critical condition. One of them, 77-year-old Leonor Gonzalez, died from her injuries on Aug. 30, nearly a week later. Phoenix police initially told AZFamily that two men had been hospitalized, then later corrected that account, saying Gonzalez — a woman — was one of the two drivers taken to the hospital.
What caused the fatal crash?
Police say a preliminary investigation found that one of the vehicles failed to yield the right-of-way when entering the intersection, causing the collision. Investigators do not believe impairment or speed played a role. The case remains under active investigation, and no additional findings have been released.
How are the two crashes connected?
They aren’t directly connected — they happened at different intersections along the same stretch of Thomas Road in central Phoenix, about a mile and a half apart, and appear to be entirely separate incidents reported close together in time. The hit-and-run at 35th Avenue involved a pedestrian; the fatal crash at 19th Avenue involved two vehicles and no pedestrians.
Why does this matter for Phoenix drivers and pedestrians?
Thomas Road is a major east-west corridor through central Phoenix, and both incidents underscore ongoing concerns about intersection safety and pedestrian risk in the area. Right-of-way violations, like the one blamed for the fatal Aug. 24 crash, are a common cause of serious intersection collisions, while hit-and-runs involving pedestrians remain a persistent public-safety issue the Phoenix Police Department continues to investigate case by case.
Sources
Featured photo: N. Fewkes and D. Leddick via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)