U of C Grad Dies in Road Rage Incident

Mandeep Bedi with wife Elizabeth. (ABC 7 screen grab)

A University of Chicago graduate died from injuries sustained in a road rage incident a week ago.

Mandeep Bedi worked as a sales intern in the school's IT Services Solutions Center. His wife Elizabeth is completing her studies in anthropology. The two were en route to U of C last week when they became involved in a hit-and-run accident that started when Elizabeth Bedi tried to merge into traffic. Another driver in a silver car pulled up and started to curse at them. The two cars pulled over and an argument ensued. After that, the driver of the second car returned to her vehicle, put it in reverse and ran over the Bedi's. Elizabeth Bedi was injured while a witness said Mandeep Bedi was "completely run over."

The identity of the driver in the incident is unknown at this time.

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By Chuck Sudo in News on August 27, 2011 3:37 PM

Comments [rss]

DianaCamera

A horrible tragedy that could have been prevented if both parties had acted in a civilized manner.

Running over two people with a car under these circumstances is certainly not acceptable, no one could argue that it is. However, reaching into someone's diver's window and striking them, open-handed or not, is unacceptable as well.

People who are afraid of another driver do not stop their car, accost that driver, and/or feel bold enough to reach into that driver's car to strike her.

The University of Chicago's campus police department is a short one or two minute drive from where this incident occurred. Had the Bedi's felt threatened and afraid, they could have simply continued driving for two minutes, at most, and would have been safely in front of the university's police department. Had they chosen to take this action, I doubt the Bedi's would have been injured.

Elizabeth and her husband chose to stop their vehicle, accost the other driver at both sides of her car, reach into the driver's passenger window to strike her, then chose to block the driver's path from both the front and the back. If this driver is caught, her defense will be that she was afraid and trying to escape. If I was on a jury hearing this case, I'd be inclined to believe her, based on Elizabeth's actions alone.

What an unfortunate ending to a situation that shouldn't even have escalated to the point that it did.

Stacie Barhorst

Heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of this couple. And to whomever ran them over, I hope you spend a long, long time in jail to allow you to think about what an absolutely awful human being you are.

Peg Wolfe

Elizabeth Bedi appears to bear an equal share of the blame for this incident, for deliberately escalating it by arguing with, following, and approaching the other driver on foot . Read the write-ups in both the Trib and Sun-Times. What on earth was she thinking?

Sara

Elizabeth was not the one who followed the other driver. It was the other driver that followed her. Get your facts straight.

solesuck

Running people over with your car is not an acceptable response to a traffic altercation. Whether or not Elizabeth escalated the verbal argument she does not deserve blame for someone trying to murder her and her husband.

slickpoetry

The more details that you read about this case, the more you see that this couple kind of dug their own grave...pardon the phrase.

There was some kind of merge-related argument. These two were the ones that got out of their car and approached the other person's car. Eyewitnesses say that Elizabeth slapped the female driver of the other car (assault and battery). Elizabeth then stood in back of the car while the deceased man stood in front of the car, effectively blocking the driver from leaving and threatening her (preventing a person from leaving is known as false imprisonment, a felony).

So we have either two felonies, or a felony and a misdemeanor, committed by this couple against the other driver. Again, sucks that he died, and I'm sure everyone would've acted differently if they had known this is how it would end up. But, you make decisions in life and sometimes those decisions have consequence. If you assault me, and then try to prevent me from escaping your assaults, I am going to use whatever means are at my disposal to get away from you.

tomdarch

If I understand correctly, one may respond with deadly force if one's life is threatened. Neither a slap in the face, nor someone blocking your car with their body seem to constitute a deadly threat from what's been described in this case. Thus, you might decide to run someone over with your car in that circumstance, ("If you assault me, and then try to prevent me from escaping your assaults, I am going to use whatever means are at my disposal to get away from you.") but that doesn't mean that you (or the driver in this case) aren't deciding to commit murder (or at least voluntary manslaughter), or that the sentence for that crime shouldn't be years in prison.