Driver killed in freak accident after tire flies off truck, striking car on Georgia freeway

A frightening incident Thursday morning on a metro Atlanta freeway left a driver dead in a freak accident.

At the height of the Thursday morning rush hour commute, a tire flew off a pickup truck traveling north on Georgia 400, and landed on the windshield of a car in the southbound lanes, killing the driver, according to police in Sandy Springs, a suburb of Atlanta.

“A truck traveling north on Ga 400 at Pitts Road lost a wheel and tire” around 8 a.m. police Sgt. Sam Worsham said in a statement.

“The wheel went over the wall and struck a vehicle south on Ga. 400.”

The driver, the only person in the vehicle, died on the scene, according to police. Her name has not been released.

The pickup truck driver was still on the scene at noon. He expressed remorse during an interview with WSB-TV.

“I was on the way to my job,” Jorge Herrera said. “I’m not drunk. I’m not driving fast. It was like a normal (day) trying to get to my job.”

At times, the accident blocked multiple lanes in both directions, causing a massive back-up for morning drivers.

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