Freak Accident In MD Kills Woman

Here's the WBALtv.com story:

BELTSVILLE, Md. -- A 21-year-old woman is dead after her car was crushed by
a truck tire on the outer loop of Interstate 495.
Officers said that the crash happened at about 1 p.m. Wednesday along the
Capital Beltway between Kenilworth Avenue and Route 1 in Prince George’s County.
Troopers identified the victim as Channing Quinichett, of Halethorpe, Md.
The tire came from a delivery truck being towed by Roger Smith, 43, of Dale
City, Va., according to state police.
Smith is employed by Waggy’s Towing of
Dumfries, Va. He was towing the flat-bed truck from Arlington, Va., to
Westminster, Md., to have its hydraulic lifting boom repaired.
Investigators
said that somehow the tire came off from the tow truck’s second axle with the
metal wheel attached.
The tire struck the center guardrail, bounced across
the grassy median and over a second guardrail.
Officers said that it was
then hit by a Freightliner tractor-trailer, which launched the tire into the air
and back across the median, where it landed directly on top of Quinichett’s
Honda Civic. Troopers said that force of the impact crushed the car’s windshield
and roof.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Two lanes of the
interstate were closed for hours.
Troopers said that no charges are expected
to be filed until after the investigative findings can be presented to the
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office.