A 24-year-old Phoenix man has died after running a stop sign and slamming his pickup truck into an Audi sedan near 44th Street and East Dale Lane, just north of Cave Creek Road and Dynamite Boulevard. Cole Chadwick was driving west on East Dale Lane in a Chevrolet pickup truck when he failed to stop at the intersection, and both drivers were rushed to the hospital, where Chadwick later died.
According to AZ Family, the crash happened just after 7:30 p.m. last Friday when the Phoenix Police Department responded to the scene near 44th Street and East Dale Lane. Preliminary investigation, as reported by the Daily Independent, showed Chadwick failed to stop at the posted sign before colliding with the Audi sedan at the intersection. Both occupants of the Audi, a man and a woman, sustained minor injuries and were taken to the hospital, while Chadwick was also transported for treatment before he died.
No Signs of Impairment Found in Surviving Driver
Phoenix Police confirmed the male driver of the Audi showed no signs of impairment during preliminary testing, according to the same report. That detail rules out impairment as a factor for the surviving driver, though investigators have not released additional findings about the circumstances that led Chadwick to run the stop sign. Formal collision reconstruction typically falls to the department's Vehicular Crimes Unit, which handles fatal crash investigations on Phoenix streets and can take weeks or months to finalize an official report, per the City of Phoenix.
Under Arizona law, drivers approaching a stop sign must come to a complete stop before entering the intersection and yield to any vehicle approaching closely on the cross street, per Arizona Revised Statutes § 28-855 as outlined by FindLaw. Failing to obey a stop sign is typically classified as a civil traffic infraction carrying fines up to $250 and two points against a driver's license, according to Bala Legal Services.
A Familiar Stretch of Road for North Phoenix Crashes
The intersection sits along a corridor that has seen repeated fatal collisions in recent years. Hoodline previously reported on a wrong-way North Phoenix crash near Cave Creek Road that hospitalized two children, and on a fatal hit-and-run that left a cyclist dead in the same general area earlier this year. A separate fatal collision along 44th Street in Phoenix was also reported in January 2024.
Phoenix logged 37,472 motor vehicle crashes in 2024 alone, averaging more than 100 per day and making it the highest crash city in the state, according to Esquire Law's analysis of city data, though fatal crashes in Phoenix actually fell from 298 in 2023 to 265 in 2024. Statewide, traffic fatalities dropped 5.2% in 2025 to 1,156 deaths, marking Arizona's third consecutive year of declining road deaths, per data released by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Still, state transportation officials noted total crash numbers remain near historic highs, and speeding and alcohol impairment together were involved in hundreds of fatal crashes statewide last year.
City Targets High-Risk Corridors Through Vision Zero
The City of Phoenix operates a Vision Zero Road Safety Action Plan funded by the voter-approved T2050 sales tax, directing $10 million annually toward safety upgrades on the city's highest-injury corridors. As part of that effort, the Phoenix City Council approved deploying 17 mobile photo safety speed-monitoring cameras across high-priority corridors in October 2024, aimed at curbing aggressive driving citywide.
Whether road design, visibility, or another factor contributed to Chadwick failing to stop remains unclear, and police have not released additional details beyond the preliminary findings. The Vehicular Crimes Unit's full reconstruction of the crash, along with any toxicology results, has not yet been made public.
