A 56-year-old Tucson man died after a Chevrolet Equinox struck him while he sat in his wheelchair in a southbound travel lane near Country Club and Elvira roads late Thursday night. Charles Stephen Howard was wearing dark clothing and had no form of illumination on him when he was hit around 11:30 p.m., and he was not in or near any marked or implied crosswalk. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
According to KVOA, the Tucson Police Department responded to the crash in the area of Country Club and Elvira roads and later identified the victim as Howard. The driver of the Equinox was not injured and remained at the scene, and police said the driver was not impaired by alcohol or drugs. As of Thursday afternoon, no criminal charges or civil citations had been issued, and the investigation remained open.
The crash was also reported by KOLD, which placed it near Country Club and Valencia roads and noted the driver had been traveling southbound on Country Club Road when the vehicle struck Howard in the travel lane. Under Arizona law, a pedestrian crossing a roadway outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection is required to yield the right-of-way to vehicles already on the road, according to the Arizona Legislature.
A Grim Pattern Along Country Club Road
Howard's death adds to a troubling run of fatal pedestrian crashes in the same corridor. Back in April, 37-year-old Jonny Sanchez was hit and killed near South Country Club Road and East 18th Street, a crash in which the driver also stayed at the scene, cooperated with investigators and was found not to be impaired, the same outlet reported.
The timing underscores a broader surge in pedestrian deaths across Tucson this year. As of an August report, 22 pedestrians had been involved in fatal incidents on city roadways in 2026, compared with 11 at the same point the year before, according to the Tucson Sentinel. Overall street deaths in the city, counting people walking, biking and driving, reached 54 so far this year versus 44 over the same span in 2025.
City Among the Nation's Deadliest for Walking
By mid-April, there had already been 15 fatal pedestrian accidents within Tucson city limits in 2026, compared with six at the same point in 2025, the Tucson Police Department told KOLD in its earlier reporting. Police said that as of that point, six of every seven pedestrian fatalities in the city resulted from pedestrians not yielding to traffic and crossing outside a marked crosswalk.
The pattern has drawn national attention. The Tucson region recorded 235 pedestrian deaths between 2020 and 2024, a 66 percent jump from the 142 recorded between 2015 and 2019, according to a report from the Living Streets Alliance. That same Dangerous by Design 2026 analysis ranks Tucson fourth among the most dangerous metro areas in the country for people walking, pointing to high vehicle speeds, wide travel lanes, long crossing distances and limited pedestrian infrastructure as key contributing factors. Tucson had previously been ranked the third-deadliest metro area for pedestrians in the nation in 2024 by Smart Growth America, per KOLD's reporting.
Some infrastructure changes have been tried in response. A lane-diet project on South 12th Avenue, completed around 2020, cut the roadway from five lanes down to three in an effort to calm traffic and improve safety for people on foot, the Tucson Sentinel reported. Whether similar changes are planned for the Country Club corridor was not addressed in available reporting.
Police have not released additional details on the crash that killed Howard, and the investigation remains ongoing.
