Woman Killed in Atlanta Accident Involving Flying Tire
Atlanta accident lawyers often see that there's more than one way negligence can be involved in an accident. Last week, a woman was killed in an accident that did not involve two vehicles coming into direct contact with each other. According to a news report, a tire from a passenger van became loose, flew off and crashed into a Hyundai Sonata on Interstate 285.
The deceased was a woman from Virginia traveling westbound on I-285 in her Sonata, when she was struck by the rear left tire of a Georgia State University passenger van. Another car was also struck by the runaway tire, but the occupants of that car, fortunately, did not suffer any injuries.
DeKalb County police are investigating the accident. They are likely to look at the maintenance of the passenger van, especially tire checks. A tire coming off a van is not a normal occurrence, and is likely linked to loose lug nuts, poor tire maintenance and other possible factors.
Runaway tires however, are not as rare as you might think. Serious injuries in the past have been linked with accidents involving commercial trucks in Atlanta, in which the massive tires came loose and flew into vehicles, motorcyclists or pedestrians nearby. A tractor-trailer tire can weigh dozens of pounds, and when it crashes through the windshield of a passenger vehicle, the potential for serious injuries and fatalities is extremely high.
Besides runaway tires, truck tire blowouts can also pose a serious risk of injury or death to motorists nearby. A tire blowout may cause large slabs of rubber to be sent shooting through windshields of cars, with enough force to cause instant death or serious injury.
Robert J. Fleming is an injury lawyer in Atlanta, whose practice is dedicated to the representation of victims of personal injury, in and around the metro Atlanta area.
