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Here's what happened in Uber's self-driving car crash

Ryan Randazzo
The Arizona Republic
The scene from an accident involving a self-driving Uber car on Friday, March 24, 2017. The car on its side is the Uber vehicle. The Tempe, Ariz., police department released the accident report Wednesday, March 29, 2017. The driver who made the left turn was cited for failing to yield the right of way, police said. The driver of the Uber vehicle was not cited.

PHOENIX — The city of Tempe, Ariz., released the accident report Wednesday for last week's crash involving the self-driving Volvo run by Uber.

The driver of a Honda CRV made a left turn Friday night in Tempe even though she could only see two of the three lanes of approaching traffic clearly. In the third lane was a self-driving Volvo run by Uber, which the Honda struck as it entered the intersection, according to a Tempe police report.

Friday's collision prompted Uber to shut down its autonomous vehicle ride-hailing program in Tempe, San Francisco and Pittsburgh over the weekend. Service resumed Monday, according to the company.

Related: Is Uber's self-driving program veering off track?

Uber executives said they temporarily stopped the service to investigate the accident and determine whether their equipment was operating properly. No one was seriously hurt. The test program had been operating in Arizona since late December.

The woman driving the Honda, identified as Alexandra Cole, was cited for failing to yield the right of way, according to Tempe police. The Uber vehicle driver, Patrick Murphy, was not cited.

Multiple accounts

Cole was heading northbound and was making a left turn. The two southbound lanes closest to her were stopped with gridlock traffic, so she turned in front of the stopped cars. The third lane, closest to the curb, was not stopped, though.

"The light was green and there were about five seconds left on the crosswalk timer," Cole wrote in the collision description. "As far as I could tell, the third lane had no one coming in it so I was clear to make my turn. Right as I got to the middle lane about to cross the third I saw a car flying through the intersection but couldn't brake fast enough to completely avoid collision."

Related: Uber halts self-driving car tests after Arizona crash

She hit the Uber vehicle, which hit a light pole, rolled onto its side, and bumped two of the cars stopped in traffic on the far side of the intersection.

"There was no time to react as there was a blind spot created by the line of traffic in the southbound left lane on McClintock," Murphy wrote in his collision description. He said he entered the intersection as the light turned yellow.

He was traveling with another Uber employee and had no customers aboard. The company confirmed the vehicle was in autonomous mode at the time of the accident.

His estimated speed was 38 mph. The limit on the road is 40. Cole estimated her speed during the crash at 20 mph.

Two witnesses stopped in traffic gave differing accounts to police. Francis Reilly said Cole's vehicle struck the Uber. Brayan Torres said Cole "was good" and that it was the Uber vehicle's "fault for trying to beat the light and hitting the gas so hard."

In a statement, Uber said its vehicle was not accelerating because of the light turning yellow as suggested by the witness statement.

Follow Ryan Randazzon on Twitter: @utilityreporter

Related: Uber's self-driving car involved in Arizona crash

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