Driver in Raleigh wrong-way wreck had previous DWI charges

According to a Raleigh police report, Ray Norman Rouse IV was going west in an eastbound lane of Wade Avenue when he struck a car driven by Ormond Jackson Bailey near the Glenwood Avenue exit. Bailey, 83, and his wife, Gaynell Batton Bailey, 79, died at WakeMed from their injuries.

An off-duty paramedic and his wife were among the first on the scene. She called 911.

"There are two sedans. It was a head-on. The guy was in the wrong lane driving down the road," the woman told the 911 dispatcher.

Rouse, 34, was also taken to WakeMed, where he was listed in critical condition on Monday. Police said they planned to charge him with DWI and driving the wrong way on a dual-lane highway once he is released from the hospital.

Wake County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Cruden said two warrants charging Rouse with felony death by motor vehicle also would be served on Rouse upon his release.

Rouse, a Goldsboro native and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate, pleaded guilty to DWI in Durham County after a September 2001 arrest. Similar charges were dismissed against him in April 2005 in Wake County and February 2006 in Wake County, according to court records.

His family declined to comment Monday.

Friends of the Baileys said the couple was heading home after church and lunch to watch basketball on television when the crash occurred.

Wade Avenue was closed between Glenwood Avenue and Capital Boulevard for several hours while investigators were at the scene.