Once you have seen the aftermath of as many car, truck and motorcycle wrecks as we have, you too might be all the more cautious on the road as we would like all of our friends and family member to be. While most people never expect to become victims of a bad traffic collision here in Baltimore (or elsewhere across the state and in the District of Columbia), it’s a sad fact that many people who become involved in severe or life-threatening car or trucking-related roadway crashes never would have imagined their day ending on such a terrible note.
As Maryland auto accident attorneys and personal injury lawyers, our main concern is for those who have been injured or killed in a car accident caused through the negligence, and sometimes because of the deliberate actions of another driver. Placing blame is one thing, but understanding that a severe or fatal auto accidents are something that can affect anyone at one time or another might be a better course to alleviating the frequency — and hence the suffering — of many individuals in the future.
While it is true that many traffic accidents are just that, accidents, if there is anything we have learned through our years of litigation in courts throughout the state of Maryland it is that a lot of accidents could possibly have been avoided if one or the other driver was paying more attention to the road. Furthermore, knowing how accidents materialize on the street can make for some serious introspection on the part of many people who work in personal injury law. What is truly disconcerting is that a percentage of car and truck crashes are actually caused by drivers intent on causing some kind of damage or injury to another person.
Road rage is a term that has become a common term these days. And, while human psychology may not have changed that much over the past 100 years, in terms of frustration on the road, we as a mobile society need to come to grips with the increasing levels of anger and antagonism out there. Case in point, a recent fatal highway collision on I-95 in Harford County, MD, just a couple days ago, which took the lives of two individuals in the early morning hours.
According to police, that accident was in some way precipitated by a previous road rage incident earlier on last Saturday morning. Based on news reports, the crash happened around 2am near Abingdon, Maryland. Maryland State Police investigators reportedly were still looking for the driver and passenger of a Jeep that appears to have been involved in the incident.
Based on police reports, a 31-year-old man and a 17-year-old teen died after the vehicle in which they were riding was hit by a commercial box truck as their vehicle changed into the fast lane of the expressway. The impact reportedly sent the victims’ Lexus off the road, after which it crashed and caught fire. An MSP officer was able to pull three occupants of that Lexus out of the burning vehicle, however two of the men died after being transported to medical facilities for emergency treatment.
At the time of the news article, police investigators said that the dead driver may have been involved in a road rage incident involving the occupants of the Jeep not long before the fatal accident. Witnesses interviewed by police at the scene stated that they had seen both vehicles stopped by the side of the road, prior to the fatal accident, during which individuals were seen walking from the Jeep to the victims’ car. Police stated that one person, allegedly from the Jeep, was witnessed pounding on the window glass of the Lexus.
It appears that in an effort to get away, the deceased driver pulled away into the fast lane of traffic and was subsequently hit by the truck. No further information was available on the reason for the roadside incident that eventually led to the fatal wreck. The investigation was ongoing at the time of the news article.
Cops: Road rage theory in deadly Md. I-95 crash; NBCNews.com; November 25, 2012