Driver: Flying Tires On Interstate Not As Rare As You Might Think
By Jeff Todd
DENVER (CBS4)- After seeing a picture of an SUV crushed by a tire, Fran Schroeder said she knows what the victims are going through.
A car headed southbound on Interstate 25 near 136th Avenue was hit by a tire that came off a car headed northbound Wednesday afternoon. Schroeder said it remind her of her own experience.
"It was just total disbelief. It was so like my situation all over again. Deja vu all over again. The only difference is I'm not in the hospital. This doesn't seem freaky to me because the same thing happened to me," Schroeder said.
She was headed to Littleton in October 2016 and had just gotten on I-25 at Speer Boulevard when two tires came off a northbound semi. The tires flew over the median and one hit Schroeder's car.
"This wheel just came flying out of nowhere and I think I dodged a little. It took out the entire side of the car, knocked off the mirror, broke off all the glass smashed it in pretty much, totaled the car," Schroeder said.
Schroeder says she hasn't been back on the interstate since the accident and has been going through physical therapy.
"At first it was just a nightmare and of course I was having all the flashbacks and the trouble sleeping and lots of emotional distress. Everybody says it's the weirdest thing that they ever heard, and I thought it was the weirdest thing I ever heard until yesterday. Fortunately, I was very, very lucky," Schroeder said.
Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.
