Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
While we’ve said it here numerous times in the past, it is tragic enough for someone to be injured or killed in a traffic accident, but to be hurt or die as the result of a preventable roadway wreck, that is something no family should ever experience. This is why car, truck and motorcycle wrecks that are caused by out and out negligence or reckless behavior are all the more egregious in the eyes of those who enforce our laws.
It must be said that road rage incidents fall into this area of preventable accidents. Unlike a situation where a car or truck has a mechanical problem that prevents a driver from avoiding a potentially deadly crash, a person who is bent on causing injury through threatening or unadvised driving behavior has it within their power NOT to carry out a possibly life-threatening act on the highway.
Of course, this is not a perfect world and there are, sadly, individuals who for no other reason than personal anger or lack of emotional control can turn on fellow motorists who they perceive as “the problem.” While many road rage incidents do not result in bodily harm, there are a percentage of occurrences involving “driving while angry” that do result in injuries and sometimes roadway deaths.
As Maryland personal injury attorneys, I and my colleagues truly understand that innocent victims hardly ever ask to be seriously injured by another driver. Yet, every year, dozens upon dozens of people — whose only mistake was being in the wrong place at the wrong time — end up recuperating in a hospital room as a result of a roadway confrontation with a bad driver.
Injuries ranging from simple bumps and bruises to compound fractures, spinal cord injury and closed-head trauma can accompany a violent road rage incident that culminates in a traffic wreck. Combine an angry individual operating a car on a busy expressway, with multiple passenger cars and a few commercial trucks, and you have a recipe for a potentially bad accident with injuries or even a fatality or two.
We mention this today after being reminded of the mayhem that ensues when just one bad actor decides to show another driver who has the right to rule the road. According to a recent news article, three people were sent to the hospital following what Anne Arundel police are calling a possible road rage-related traffic accident.
Based on police reports, the accident in question occurred on a Monday afternoon when two vehicles were involved in a crash along a stretch of Maryland Rte 3 in Gambrills, MD. Police noted that a following the crash one of the individuals involved was stabbed at the scene by another. In all, three men traveling in two vehicles were involved in the incident. Based on news articles, a 22-year-old man was treated at the scene and then transported by ambulance to Maryland Shock Trauma in Baltimore. A second man, as well as that person’s son, was transported to Baltimore’s Washington Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries.
According to Anne Arundel County police, the vehicles involved in the alleged altercation included a Chrysler PT Cruiser and a sport utility vehicle, make unknown. Both vehicles ended up in a ditch alongside Rte 3 just before 5pm that afternoon. Police stated that the juxtaposition of the passenger vehicles was odd from the perspective of a car crash, and investigators were trying to piece together any events that may have precipitated the final collision and subsequent stabbing incident.
3 Hospitalized in Possible Road Rage Incident, Patch.com, February 20, 2012