Police: Tire flies off truck, striking and killing motorist

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. – Authorities say a tire flew off a pickup truck and struck and killed the driver of a car headed the opposite way on a highway near Atlanta.

Police Sgt. Sam Worsham told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the pickup truck was headed north on the Ga. 400 highway in rush hour traffic about 8 a.m. Thursday when it lost the wheel and tire. He says the tire bounded over a wall and landed on the windshield of the southbound car.

The car’s lone occupant died on the scene in suburban Sandy Springs. She wasn’t immediately identified.

News photographs showed the car in the roadway with its windshield and roof partially crumpled in, traffic snarled behind it. Several lanes were blocked both ways at times before all lanes reopened before midday.

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Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com