Former Pima County Supervisor Ann Day was killed in a crash this morning, hit by a car that jumped a median and struck her Prius head-on, officials say.
“It’s just sad because here’s this lady in her mid-to-late 70s, early in the morning, probably just driving home, and you just can’t prevent that, there’s nothing she could do," Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said.
The 23-year-old driver of the other car is suspected of impaired driving, and was seen driving erratically at excessive speeds before the crash, Nanos said.
Day was driving eastbound on East Ina Road near the Westward Look Resort on Tucson's northwest side shortly before about 8 a.m.. The driver of a Chevrolet Impala crossed the median and crashed into her Toyota, authorities said. Her vehicle was then struck by a pickup truck that was behind her.
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Nanos said a doctor was riding his bicycle nearby, and a Northwest Fire battalion chief and a Marine paramedic all saw the crash and tried to assist, but no one was able to help Day.
She was pronounced dead at Banner University Medical Center at 8:37 a.m.
Nanos said the vehicle that hit Day had been seen by witnesses “bouncing off of curbs and driving at a high rate of speed in excess of 80 mph” before the crash. Later statements from the driver led deputies to suspect he was on some sort of drugs, and a toxicology screen was conducted, the sheriff said. The driver was in the hospital for injuries related to the crash and had not been arrested as of Saturday afternoon.
Deputy Ryan Inglett, a sheriff's spokesman, said the driver of the pickup also had serious injuries but they were not life-threatening.
“I worked with her for a long time. She was a very capable and reasonable co-worker on that board,” Supervisor Ray Carroll said Saturday. “She was a very loyal and treasured friend of mine.”
Day, 77, a Republican, represented the county’s District 1 until she decided to end two-decades of political service by in 2011 by not seeking re-election.
Day, the sister of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, called herself a "cowgirl from the Lazy B" ranch, a Star profile in 2011 said.
Day served 10 years in the state Senate and 12 years representing District 1, which runs north of the Rillito and includes Oro Valley, parts of Marana and the Catalina Foothills.
Her downtown office was filled with mementos and relics, from cowboy poetry to pictures of her grandchildren and a photo of her father branding a calf. Her grandfather, H.C. Day, started the Lazy B in 1880 and served as the chairman of the Board of Supervisors in Graham County.
Day's upbringing on the rural Eastern Arizona ranch gave her an independent streak that shaped her politics, the Star’s 2011 article noted. “That streak served her in a legislative caucus that often ran counter to her moderate breed of politics. It helped fuel her reputation as a consumer advocate, spearheading reforms in the HMO industry and helping establish cancer patients' rights to clinical trial treatments,” the article said.
