Nick Keleman was on the phone with his daughter Megan when the attack that would kill her unfolded at a Stow Taco Bell drive-through on August 14, 2024. Now he is pushing Ohio lawmakers to pass a bill named for her that would require escape lanes at certain newly built or substantially renovated drive-through facilities, with exemptions, and the legislation has stalled in a Columbus committee for months.
Megan Keleman, 25, was fatally shot in the drive-through line, according to cleveland.com. As reported by FOX 8 News, 53-year-old Jason Williams rammed her car with his truck, got out, shot and killed her, and then took his own life. Her father was on the phone with her as the rampage happened, the station reports.
Out of that loss, the Keleman family has devoted their energy to passing a new escape-lane law they call Megan’s Way Out. Nick Keleman has said a bypass lane could have allowed his daughter to exit and survive, and he has described the toll of watching it happen without being able to stop it: “As a father, you want to defend your family, you want to defend your kids any way possible, any means possible and not being able to do anything, that’s tough and it’s very easy to be bitter,” he said, per the same account.
What Senate Bill 264 Would Require
State Sen. Casey Weinstein, a Democrat from Hudson, introduced Senate Bill 264 in September 2025 to make an escape lane a state-law requirement. Weinstein has described it as a dedicated path alongside the main drive-through lane that allows vehicles to exit in an emergency, according to FOX 8. The bill would require certain newly constructed or substantially renovated restaurants, pharmacies and financial institutions with drive-through lanes to include a separate bypass lane, per cleveland.com’s report…