A motorcycle carrying two riders crashed near East Cornell Drive and South McClintock Drive in Tempe late Friday, leaving a man and a woman with critical injuries. Both riders were treated at the scene before being rushed to a local hospital, and the crash forced a lengthy shutdown of one of Tempe’s busiest north-south corridors.
Tempe Fire Medical Rescue responded to the collision, according to AZ Family, which first reported that both the man and woman aboard the motorcycle sustained critical injuries. McClintock Road was closed in both directions between Southshore Drive and Oxford Drive as crews worked the scene, snarling traffic in the area for hours. The Tempe Police Department is investigating what led to the crash, and it remains unclear whether another vehicle was involved or whether speed or impairment played any role.
The stretch of McClintock Drive near the Loop 202 has seen its share of severe motorcycle crashes in recent years. Just two weeks removed from the same corridor’s fatal history, this latest wreck adds to a troubling pattern for riders navigating Tempe’s arterial streets after dark.
A Corridor With a History of Serious Crashes
In August 2023, a fatal motorcycle crash near McClintock Drive and the Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway shut down all westbound freeway lanes for more than three hours after a motorcyclist collided with a disabled vehicle sitting in the HOV lane, as reported by KTAR News. More recently, in December 2025, Tempe police investigated a fatal crash near Rural and Guadalupe roads in which a 51-year-old motorcyclist was killed and his passenger injured after colliding with a pickup truck, according to a report cited by Arizona’s Family. Hoodline has also tracked a fatal Kiwanis Park bike crash from earlier this summer, in which a 20-year-old rider died after being struck by a driver showing signs of impairment near Baseline Road and Mill Avenue…