Man Dead After Truck Tire Hits Car on Long Island Highway

A man died after his vehicle was struck by a tire that had come off a truck on a Long Island highway.

The accident occurred on the afternoon of Thursday, July 5, at about 2:15 p.m. The driver, who was in a 1998 Saturn, was traveling in the westbound lanes of Sunrise Highway in North Babylon. According to the Department of Transportation, a tractor-trailer was also traveling on NY-231, a highway that crosses over Sunrise Highway, when it lost one or two tires. One of those tires fell onto the highway and hit the Saturn, crushing the roof and hood of the vehicle and killing the driver inside.

Another vehicle, a Chevy SUV driven by a 61-year-old woman with another passenger, was also hit by a tire, which may have been the same tire. The two women inside the SUV were not injured.

Authorities are asking for the public’s help in finding the truck that lost the tire. It is possible the driver was unaware of what happened.

Pre-trip inspections mandatory for truck drivers

Incidents like this are exactly why pre-trip inspections are mandatory for drivers of tractor-trailers. In many cases, these inspections help uncover the presence of potential problems that could arise during a trip. If a driver were to forgo the pre-trip inspection and then a preventable safety issue caused an accident, anyone injured would be able to file a claim against the truck driver or trucking company.

For more information on your options after a serious trucking accident, consult a skilled personal injury attorney with Jakubowski, Robertson, Maffei, Goldsmith & Tartaglia, LLP.