Police identify driver after deadly car crash causes airport delays
By Elliott Polakoff
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PHOENIX (KPHO) — A deadly car crash at a Sky Harbor parking garage led to lane closures and delays for travelers Sunday morning.
Phoenix police confirmed a man is dead after colliding with the wall on the Terminal 4 parking garage roof. The outer lanes on the north side of Terminal 4 going eastbound were closed from around 2-8 p.m. as crews dealt with unexpected repairs from this deadly crash. Monday morning, police identified that driver as 54-year-old Torrey Reid.
“You just step out of the plane, you come out and see the lane closures, and you go what’s going on?” Gilbert resident Jeff Hins said. Hins and his wife had just returned from a trip to Minnesota when they endured a longer-than-usual wait for their ride home at Terminal 4. “If you’re on a long flight, and you get home, and stuff’s not happening,” Hins said, “you get a frustration somewhat.”
In this case, that stuff meant multiple lanes closed from this morning’s deadly car crash. The roof of Terminal 4 was also restricted as airport crews and Phoenix police continued to investigate how this happened. “You can’t really be upset about it then if it’s shut down for such a reason.” Buckeye resident Pete Sclafani said. “If it was just for road construction or something, then I’d be a little bit more perturbed.”
As repair work continued, Sky Harbor officials advised drivers to enter the airport from the east side to avoid getting thrown into the bottleneck of slow-moving traffic. But not everyone got the memo in time. “I already told him [my ride], you might want to Waze to figure out how to get to the airport,” Phoenix resident Kristen Ward said. “Because he could get a little upset by the end of his journey to pick me up.”
“All in all, I guess I have to look at it as though I’m blessed I can travel,” Hins added. The deadly crash sadly puts things into perspective. “It does make you wonder what’s going on safety-wise and otherwise I guess.”
Phoenix police say this is an ongoing investigation and that questions regarding the condition of the man who died are unknown at this time.
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