A 34-year-old Phoenix man is facing felony hit-and-run charges after police say he ran a red light and struck a woman legally crossing Camelback Road early last Sunday, then drove off — a case that unraveled only after another driver called 911 and read off his license plate number. Yamin Nameye was booked on one felony hit-and-run count and a misdemeanor count of causing an accident resulting in physical injury, and court documents indicate doctors could not say whether the woman he struck would survive her injuries.
Witness's 911 Call Cracked the Case
According to AZ Family, Nameye was driving a Kia Sedona west on Camelback Road east of 43rd Avenue around 2 a.m. Sunday when he ran a red light and hit the woman as she crossed on a green walk signal. He then continued south on 59th Avenue, the outlet reports, losing the driver who had witnessed the crash and tried to follow him. Hoodline first reported on the crash that Sunday morning in its initial coverage, when the victim remained in critical condition and the driver who struck her was still unidentified.
The other driver's call gave detectives the break they needed. That driver gave Nameye's license plate number to a 911 dispatcher, and investigators used it to match an address to him, according to the outlet's report. Detectives then staked out Nameye's apartment complex, and parts recovered from the crash scene matched his Kia Sedona, per the same report. Police officers eventually pulled Nameye over and took him into custody.
What Nameye Told Investigators
Per court paperwork, Nameye initially told detectives he was unsure where or what he had hit. The same paperwork indicates he separately admitted to having struck something on the side of the road two days earlier, though it is unclear how investigators reconciled the two statements.
The woman Nameye struck suffered life-threatening injuries, including multiple lower-body injuries and internal bleeding, and experienced a fluctuating heart rate and blood pressure, according to court documents. She remained hospitalized as of the court filing.
Felony Hit-and-Run Charge Carries Years in Prison
Nameye was booked on one felony hit-and-run count and one misdemeanor count of causing an accident resulting in physical injury, per AZ Family's report. A judge set his bond at $150,000. Felony hit-and-run and vehicular crash cases in Phoenix are handled by Maricopa County Superior Court at its Central Court Building in Downtown Phoenix, according to Arizona DUI Team.
Nameye also has prior arrests for assault, aggravated assault, criminal damage and failure to comply with a court order, and he is currently subject to an order of protection, according to the same AZ Family report.
Arizona Law Sets Steep Penalties for Fleeing a Crash
Leaving the scene of a crash that causes serious physical injury or death is a Class 2 felony under Arizona law when the driver caused the collision, carrying up to 10 years in prison, according to AZ Law Now; fleeing a non-fatal serious-injury crash without causing it is instead charged as a Class 3 felony. Separately, running a red light that results in serious physical injury is a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail, fines as high as $2,500, mandatory traffic survival school and a possible 90-day license suspension, per Traffic Law Guys.
A felony hit-and-run conviction also triggers mandatory license revocation by the state's Motor Vehicle Division — three years for an injury crash, five years for a serious physical injury crash and ten years if the victim dies — according to Wood Injury Law. That administrative penalty applies independently of whatever sentence a criminal court hands down.
A History of Deadly Crashes Along This Stretch of Camelback Road
The intersection where Nameye is accused of striking the woman has seen serious hit-and-run crashes before. In October 2024, a woman crossing the roadway at 43rd Avenue and Camelback Road was struck and killed by a driver who fled the scene, while two other drivers involved in the same incident remained behind, according to KTAR News.
The corridor sits within a broader stretch of West Phoenix that federal crash data has flagged as uniquely dangerous. A two-square-mile patch along Indian School Road and Grand Avenue recorded 53 pedestrian fatalities across 52 crashes between 2000 and 2024, making it the deadliest corridor for pedestrians in Arizona, per a separate AZ Law Now analysis.
West Phoenix's Roads Rank Among Arizona's Deadliest for Pedestrians
Intersections nearby, including 27th Avenue and Camelback Road and 43rd Avenue and Bethany Home Road, consistently rank among the ten most dangerous in the Phoenix metro area based on multi-year crash-risk analysis by the Maricopa Association of Governments, according to Rafi Law Group.
Maricopa County accounts for the vast majority of the state's pedestrian crashes: the county recorded 1,516 of Arizona's 2,079 pedestrian crashes in 2024 — a five-year high — and 158 of the state's 263 pedestrian fatalities, according to the same AZ Law Now analysis of state crash data.
Arizona ranks among the most dangerous states in the country for pedestrians, with a fatality rate of 4.17 per 100,000 residents, according to Governor's Highway Safety Association data cited by 12News.
Phoenix's Vision Zero Push Hasn't Reversed the Trend
Phoenix has been working to address the problem since adopting its Road Safety Action Plan in September 2022, with a goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2050. Fatal and serious-injury crashes in the city dropped to a preliminary 751 in 2024, down from 880 in 2022, according to the City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department's 2024 annual report. Even so, the report notes that the long-term trendline for traffic fatalities in Phoenix has continued to climb since 2015.
