The Roman Catholic bishop of Phoenix, in the US state of Arizona, was arrested in connection with a deadly hit-and-run accident after police traced a license plate number to his car and found the windshield caved in.

　　Bishop Thomas O'Brien, 67, was booked late on Monday on a charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Bond was set at US,000.

　　Police said in court documents that O'Brien told them he thought he had hit a dog or a cat or that some-one had thrown a rock at his car.

　　O'Brien made headlines earlier this month when it was announced that he relinquished some of his authority in an unprecedented agreement with prosecutors that spared him from indictment on obstruction charges for protecting child-molesting priests.

　　In the hit-and-run case on Saturday night, 43-year-old Jim Reed died after he was struck by two cars while walking across a street in the middle of the block about five kilometers from the bishop's home. Both cars drove off.

　　Sergeant Randy Force, a police spokesman, said O'Brien wasn't being charged with causing the crash because the victim had been jaywalking.

　　"If the bishop had remained at the scene, in all likelihood he would not have been charged with any crime," Force said.

　　He said alcohol wasn't a focus of the investigation, but also noted that there would have been no way to test for it by the time police talked to O'Brien.

　　Witnesses gave police a partial license plate number from the first car, which led investigators to the diocese and the bishop's home, said police Sergeant Laurie Williams.

　　The tan Buick's windshield was caved in on the passenger's side, Williams said.

　　The court documents say that O'Brien had driven the car to Mass on Sunday and to visit his sister in Scottsdale. He had also made a call aboutshavingsthe windshield fixed, police said.

　　The documents said a priest had informed O'Brien on Sunday night that police were looking for him but that the bishop never contacted authorities.

　　Williams said O'Brien had told police he was returning home after a Mass on Saturday night. Police had no information on the second car.

　　Under a deal with prosecutors, O'Brien agreed among other things to appoint the church equivalent of a chief of staff to supervise the enforcement of the church's sexual misconduct policies.