Officials with the Arizona Department of Public Safety say that a New Mexico man is dead after being struck and killed at an intersection near Interstate 10 in Phoenix.
KTAR News reports that the accident happened in the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 10th. Abelino Rudolfo, 54, of New Mexico, was struck and killed in the westbound lanes of Interstate 10 and 91st Avenue near Loop 101 at approximately 4:40 a.m.
According to Trooper Kameron Lee, authorities do not know why Rudolfo was on the Interstate at the time of the crash. At first, authorities believed that Rudolfo had possibly gotten out of a vehicle that stopped on SR101.
The driver who had struck and killed the pedestrian and a second driver who had witnessed the crash stayed at the scene to be questioned by DPS investigators.
Trooper Kameron Lee said that it was one of the worst pedestrian crashes he had seen during his career and felt that the driver was the real victim in the crash because they had done so unwittingly.
Interstate 101 was shut down at 91st Avenue, and traffic was rerouted via frontage road to 99th. DPS announced on their Twitter account that the portion of the highway where the fatal crash occurred was reopened at approximately 10:00 a.m.
No further information has been released at this time. Authorities are not expected to file criminal charges against the driver in the case.
