Double Crash Kills 2 on I-17
A vehicle plowed into an existing crash scene Monday morning on I-17 southbound just south of the Yorkshire Drive exit, killing two people.
The initial crash was a single-vehicle motorcycle accident at about 5 a.m. that left the motorcyclist, Johnny Youngblood, a 38-year-old Phoenix resident, alert and conscious, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Three vehicles stopped to assist. Then a white vehicle driven by Brian Higbee struck one of the stopped vehicles and four of the bystanders, DPS said in a statement. The collision killed Youngblood and one of the bystanders, 53-year-old Beverly Click of Sun City.
Two additional bystanders were seriously injured.
Higbee, 34, is a Phoenix resident. “Given the circumstances of the crash, the location and time of day, troopers issued a citation to Mr. Higbee,” DPS said in a follow-up statement Tuesday afternoon. “The whole report will be reviewed by detectives to determine if additional charges will be forthcoming. At this time, there does not appear to be an element that would rise to the level of a criminal action on Mr. Higbee’s part.”
There were no updates on the conditions of the other victims as of this writing. The investigation is ongoing, DPS said.
It was less than three weeks ago that a wrong-way-driver accident killed three people on I-17, not far from yesterday’s collision.
