A woman in Connecticut was injured after a loose tire struck her car’s windshield on the highway
- A flying tire struck a woman’s car, causing severe damage to the windshield and roof.
- The fire department extricated the woman from the car before taking her to the hospital.
- The driver sustained traumatic injuries, but the damage could have been even worse.
There’s no question that public roads can be hazardous. In most cases, the danger comes from other motorists. What most of us don’t expect, however, is a loose tire turning into a serious safety hazard. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what happened to a woman in Connecticut this past week.
Around 8:30 a.m., she was cruising down Interstate 95 when, out of nowhere, a tire flew over the median and smashed into her car. While the exact speed she was traveling is unclear, the damage was catastrophic. The tire hit her windshield and sent fractures out in every direction.
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By the time the Milford Fire Department was done getting her out, the roof of the car was in multiple pieces, too. Jason Dombrowski, the public information officer for the Milford FD, told Fox 61 that the woman sustained “traumatic injuries.” Authorities took her to the hospital for additional evaluation. As for her car, there’s no question that it’s driven its last mile on public roads.
The Science of a Flying Tire
To put things into perspective, most alloy wheels, like the one the Milford FD posted a photo of, can weigh 20-30 lbs. Add on the weight of a tire, sometimes another 20-30 lbs, and we’re talking about a 40-60-lb projectile hurtling toward a car at highway speeds.
A 60-pound tire traveling at 50-60 mph carries around 6,800 to 9,800 joules of kinetic energy. While that’s not the same as the energy of a moving car, it’s still a significant amount of force – more than enough to cause serious damage. This is far from a harmless rubber object bouncing around; the impact can definitely lead to severe injury, as we saw in this incident.
Clearly, the driver was lucky that this whole situation didn’t end up worse. Police are still investigating exactly how the tire ended up free to cause all that damage.
