Ontario Provincial Police are looking for a motorist after a tire flew off a vehicle and struck a car on a busy highway Monday morning.
A woman escaped serious injury when the tire caved in her car’s roof and shattered its windshield on Highway 401, near Stevenson Road, in Oshawa at about 6:30 a.m., police say.
The tire came off a car and bounced across several lanes of traffic before it struck the woman’s car in the oncoming lanes.
Tow truck driver John Powell said he encountered the woman after she pulled over to the side of the highway.
“She was out of her vehicle, holding her face,” Powell said. “She was fine. She had glass in her eyes.”
A short time later, Powell’s colleague, Ryan Rohrbach, encountered the motorist whose vehicle lost the tire.
The man had pulled over to put on a spare tire, and Rohrbach said he told the man the tire hit a woman’s vehicle.
“He was very surprised that he hit a vehicle,” Rohrbach said. “He didn’t know that. He thought he just lost his tire off the vehicle.”
The man then drove off.
“The guy just wanted to get out of there and he took off, so we don’t know who he is,” Rohrbach said. “It could have been a lot worse. Luckily, she’s OK, but he should have stuck around.”
Since December 2011, at least two people have been killed in similar incidents in southern Ontario.
With files from CTV Toronto police and crime reporter Tamara Cherry.
@ChrisKitching is on Twitter. For instant breaking news, follow @CP24 on Twitter.
