A man has died after his vehicle was struck by a flying wheel on Highway 400 in King Township this morning, Ontario Provincial Police have confirmed.

The accident occurred in the northbound lanes of the highway near King Road at around 9 a.m.

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said a transport truck was heading southbound on Highway 400 when it lost a set of wheels. One of the wheels began to bounce across the highway and eventually came in to contact with a SUV in the northbound lanes.

"From what I’ve heard from witnesses, the wheel was actually bouncing up over the guard rail and bounced right down on to the roof of the SUV,” Schmidt said.

The lone occupant of the SUV had to be extricated from the vehicle and was transported to a trauma centre via air ambulance. Police confirmed that the man had died in hospital in a  tweet sent out at around 10:30 p.m.

Schmidt said the SUV sustained a massive amount of damage.

"Even one wheel is a couple hundred pounds of steel that is coming toward you at maybe 100 kilometres per hour. You are travelling towards it at 100 kilometres per hour so you have a closing speed of approaching 200 kilometres per hour," he said.

"Obviously there is no time for the driver to be able to react and see that."

The transport truck travelled approximately two kilometres before coming to a stop, he added.

"Sometimes these truck drivers, they can travel a long distance and they may not even realize they’ve lost a set a wheels and only come to find out when they stop and inspect their vehicle," Schmidt said.

Investigators are looking in to the truck's maintenance records for possible clues as to why the wheels would have come loose.

"It is absolutely tragic to see something like this happen," Schmidt said.