Truck Tire Comes Loose, Flies Into Car Windshield On I-280 In New Jersey

WEST ORANGE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A truck lost a wheel that careened into a car headed in the opposite direction, in a bizarre accident on Interstate 280 in New Jersey Tuesday.

As CBS2's Raegan Medgie reported, the person in that vehicle is lucky to be alive.

Glass pieces were left scattered across the front seat of the car, which was left with a shattered windshield after the tire got loose.

"Lucky for them… that looks like more than a tire can do that," said Al Paradise of Parsippany.

The driver survived and was recovering late Tuesday.

"I couldn't imagine a tire could do that," Paradise said. "But wow, that's something. It really is."

New Jersey State Police said it all happened before 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, just as rush hour was getting under way.

The driver of a pickup truck was headed east on I-280 near the boundary between West Orange and Livingston, when something went terribly wrong.

State police said the tire came off the truck and rolled and bounced through several lanes of traffic before it blasted through the windshield.

"There's a lot of what ifs," said Brian Hocke, a mechanic at the Black Diamond Garage in Parsippany. His garage is next to the lot where the damaged vehicles were being stored late Tuesday.

"It looks like the lug nuts just fell off," Hocke said.

Hocke is not part of the investigation into the accident, but he did give CBS2 a closer look at what he believes might have gone wrong.

"(One lug nut hole) has one spot considerably shinier and more worn than the other ones. The other ones do have some wear, but this one has rust, that one has rust. Two, possibly three, have been off for a while," he said.

New Jersey State Police will be looking into the condition of the tire. Meanwhile, Hocke said the consequences of the accident could have been far more devastating.

"It could have hit a person instead of a car," Hocke said.

State police said another vehicle, a commercial van, also got damaged. One of the people in that van was taken to an area hospital and was expected to recover.

Police have not decided whether charges will be filed.