The homicide of 6-year-old Aiden Leos on an Orange County freeway is a terrifying and cautionary story. The sequence of occasions that led to the little boy’s demise present an object lesson in why drivers ought to by no means overreact once they sense they’re being disrespected on the highway. Make this your mantra, folks: Simply let it go. Simply let it go.
On Could 21, 2021, Aiden’s mom, Joanna Cloonan, left their dwelling in Costa Mesa to take her son to highschool at Calvary Chapel Pre-College in Yorba Linda. They drove north on the 55 Freeway of their Chevy Sonic, Aiden strapped into his automotive seat within the again.
What occurred subsequent that morning was silly, pointless and embarrassing, and a horrifying reminder that getting right into a battle whereas driving can have tragic, disastrous penalties.
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Opinion columnist
Robin Abcarian
In accordance with the Orange County Register, a Volkswagen Golf pushed by Wynne Lee accelerated behind Cloonan within the carpool lane, sped round her after which drove again into the lane in entrance of Cloonan’s automotive, reducing off Cloonan and braking her. “Lee then confirmed a peace signal that the mom considered as lower than real,” the report stated.
As an alternative of letting him go, Cloonan angrily pulled up subsequent to the VW and turned the couple away. Huge mistake.
Lee’s passenger, Marcus Eriz, reached for his gun within the backseat.
“She remembered Eriz smiling at her from the passenger seat,” my colleague Christopher Goffard wrote, “after which listening to a loud noise as she drove away. It was a single bullet from Eriz’s gun, which went by the trunk and thru her son’s physique.
The bullet hit Aiden from behind, lacerating his liver and lungs earlier than puncturing his coronary heart and leaving his physique. He bled to demise on the freeway shoulder as his mom cried hysterically and a CHP officer tried to avoid wasting him.
On Thursday, Eriz, 26, was convicted of manslaughter and taking pictures into an occupied car. The jury took simply two hours to resolve. He faces a most jail sentence of 40 years and might be sentenced on April 12.
Lee, his girlfriend, might be tried afterward lesser prices.
The virtually unspeakable irony on the coronary heart of this case is what Eriz advised investigators about why he carried a gun within the first place: “Individuals have been appearing loopy on the freeway.”
A self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one.
Final March, the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Security reported that highway rage “continues to pile up fatalities and accidents from shootings,” even because the spike in gun violence that occurred in the course of the top of the COVID pandemic had subsided. The group’s analysis and coverage division analyzed knowledge on gun violence and located that highway rage accidents and gun violence incidents have elevated yearly since 2018. “These incidents translate to an individual being shot, injured or killed in a visitors incident each 16 hours by 2022.” Generally, states with probably the most lax gun legal guidelines have the best variety of gun-related visitors incidents.
In Could, a younger man, described by his pals as a music-loving surfer from Jordan, was killed in Marina del Rey after he obtained out of his automotive at a visitors gentle to speak to a driver who had minimize off the automotive he was driving. good friend. The driving force blew a gap in his chest and no arrest has been made, in line with Los Angeles police.
In December, 4-year-old Gor Adamyan was killed in Lancaster after his dad and mom, on their strategy to the grocery store, by accident minimize off a automotive whose driver then started following the household and harassing them earlier than taking pictures on the automotive. Gor died in what has been described as a ‘hail of bullets’. The suspected shooter, Byron Burkhart, 29, has been charged with homicide, tried homicide and taking pictures into an occupied automotive. If convicted, he faces life in jail.
Anybody who has ever been behind the wheel in metropolis or freeway visitors has skilled highway rage – theirs or another person’s.
“It may occur to any of us,” stated Orange County Prosecutor Todd Spitzer, commenting on Eriz’s conviction. “All of us drive on the highways of Southern California. We have all gotten indignant at different drivers; different motorists have change into indignant with us. I threw some gestures round myself.”
If I am trustworthy, so am I. I do my greatest swearing behind the wheel. I could often drive aggressively, equivalent to darting to get forward of a driver who decides to hurry up somewhat than let me in when altering lanes. I additionally consistently have an undoubtedly imaginary energy battle with different drivers, which makes me really feel ashamed of myself. I typically discover myself questioning how youthful, much less mature and/or testosterone-fueled drivers can restrain themselves once I, an older, presumably calmer driver, can discover themselves behind the wheel.
However I do not drive to punish. I’ve by no means braked for anybody to show them a lesson. I’ve by no means rolled down my window to yell at somebody. I might by no means take the danger as a result of, as Eriz put it, folks act loopy on the freeway.
AAA, the membership group for individuals who drive, presents tricks to stop highway rage: Do not make eye contact with indignant drivers; do not make hand gestures; don’t reply to aggression with aggression; and keep in your automotive in case you are bodily confronted.
By far their greatest recommendation is that this: “Be tolerant and forgiving. Assume it isn’t private. It may very well be that the opposite driver is simply having a extremely dangerous day.”
Or, I would add, perhaps he is simply carrying a gun.