Driving safety advocates say Wednesday?s double homicide in Baltimore is the worst example of road rage in recent memory.
“This is the extreme,” said Ragina Averella, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, a driver advocacy group. “There are all kinds of road rage incidents, ranging from somebody cutting somebody off and running them off the shoulder to this ? the most extreme, where a firearm is used.”
Two cars were traveling on Mount Royal Avenue in Bolton Hill around 6 p.m. when the drivers got into “some type of dispute,” said Baltimore police spokesman Agent Donny Moses.
The dispute escalated, and gunfire rang out from one of the cars, a green Volkswagen Jetta, killing two people in the other car, a Ford Crown Victoria, Moses said.
WJZ Television reported that the driver, Edward Tyree Baylor, 32, and 16-year-old Rebecca Meekins were shot to death by suspects in a green Volkswagen Jetta who fired into their car.The televisionnews station also reported that Baylor had “a long criminal record at least 58 pages long, including involvement in a shooting about seven years ago ” and was on parole at the time of his death.
“It was a road rage,” Moses said.
Averella said the incident was all the more reason why lawmakers should support two bills sponsored by state Del. Dana Stein, a Baltimore County Democrat, that target road rage.
The first would establish a specific law against road rage, and the second would make the act punishable by a penalty of up to $2,000.
“Road rage is becoming increasingly more prevalent across the country and in Maryland,” Averella said. “We?re seeing more and more examples where road rage is escalating. We live in a place now where obviously bills like Delegate Stein?s are relevant and needed.”
In 2007, a taxi driver was shot to death in Baltimore in an incident categorized as road rage.
In Frederick County, two people were killed last year in a crash after they were forced off the road in another apparent road rage incident.
In a poll released by AAA Mid-Atlantic in April 2007, Maryland motorists believe aggressive drivers are the biggest danger on Maryland roadways, Averella said.
Police continue to search for the green Jetta in connection with the fatal shooting, Moses said.
