Grandmother Killed After Family Stops to Help Change Flat Tire on Arizona Freeway
A family had finished the hard part. A flat tire on an Arizona freeway had been changed, and the relatives who came out in the middle of the night to help were preparing to leave.
They never got the chance.
At about 1:01 a.m. on Sept. 16, a vehicle traveling east on U.S. 60 near Higley Road struck both vehicles stopped on the shoulder, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety. One person was killed and two others suffered critical and serious injuries.
The driver who hit them, 21-year-old Zachary Robert Penrod of Queen Creek, showed signs of impairment, DPS said. Since then, additional reporting has added another layer to the case: prosecutors reportedly say his blood-alcohol concentration was at least 2.5 times Arizona’s legal limit, and state liquor investigators determined he had been drinking at a Tempe bar before the crash.
One Last Step
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DPS said the trouble began when a driver experienced a flat tire and pulled onto the right emergency shoulder.
Family members responded to help change it. The repair was complete, and the group was preparing to get back on the road when Penrod’s vehicle struck the two stopped vehicles, according to the agency’s preliminary investigation.
DPS booked Penrod into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Jail on one count of manslaughter, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of endangerment.
The agency’s Vehicular Crimes Unit is continuing to investigate the collision.
The Family
The woman killed was 82-year-old Ruth Acuña de Valenzuela, Arizona’s Family reported after speaking with her grandson, Javier Valenzuela.
The outlet reported that two other family members were hospitalized after the crash.
What began as one relative needing roadside help had put an entire family on the shoulder together.
The criminal case has also moved beyond DPS’s initial statement that Penrod showed signs of impairment.
Beyond The Shoulder
Prosecutors say Penrod’s blood-alcohol concentration was at least 2.5 times the legal limit, FOX 10 Phoenix reported. Arizona law sets the standard DUI threshold at an alcohol concentration of 0.08 within two hours of driving.
FOX 10 also reported that Penrod has since bonded out of jail.
The same report carried a statement from the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control saying the agency assisted DPS detectives with a search warrant at Tempe Tavern.
The liquor department determined that Penrod had been physically present at the bar and consumed alcohol there before the crash, according to the statement provided to FOX 10.
Separately, Arizona’s Family reported that court records say Penrod told investigators he had consumed three beers at a Tempe bar before driving.
Those developments do not establish that the bar caused the collision or violated liquor law in connection with Penrod. The liquor investigation is a separate evidentiary track from the criminal allegations against him.
A Familiar Name
Tempe Tavern was already under regulatory scrutiny before the U.S. 60 crash.
In December 2025, the City of Tempe said police found 249 underage people inside the business during a liquor-law compliance operation. The city said the operation followed an earlier one in April that resulted in nearly 170 arrests.
The December release also connected a separate 2025 fatal hit-and-run investigation to a 19-year-old woman who police said had been inside Tempe Tavern before that collision.
By March 2026, a state liquor investigator had recommended permanent revocation of Tempe Tavern’s liquor license after an investigation into alleged violations at the business, ABC15 reported.
Tempe Tavern has disputed allegations made against it and previously accused government agencies of unfairly targeting the business.
Doors Closed
The tavern has now shut down.
An attorney representing the business told KTAR that the decision to close had been made at the beginning of September — before the crash involving Penrod — and said employees and vendors had already been told that Sept. 16 would be its final day.
That timing matters: the bar’s closure should not be treated as a response to the fatal U.S. 60 collision.
The Department of Liquor Licenses and Control told FOX 10 that administrative proceedings involving the tavern can continue despite the business closing.
Penrod’s release on bond likewise does not resolve the allegations against him. The crash remains under DPS investigation, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
