Two people are dead after a tandem axle came loose from a moving semi truck and smashed into a van in Ohio on Monday.
The accident happened on June 12th in Miami County, Ohio on Interstate 75 near mile marker 66 at around 11 a.m.
According to WDTN2 News, a tandem axle came detached from a southbound tractor trailer and bounced over the median before sideswiping a car and smashing into a northbound Dodge van with five people inside.
The tires destroyed the roof of the van and killed the driver, 77-year-old David Wright, along with one of the passengers, 72-year-old Jon Weidel. Two more passengers inside of the van were taken to the hospital with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries. A fifth person in the van was not hurt.
“This is an absolute freak accident,” said Cameron Haller, chief of Tipp City Emergency Services.
.“I know that semi-trailers do all kinds of preventative maintenance. It just, this time it just mechanically didn’t work out.”
Haller says the first vehicle sideswiped by the semi truck tires is “extremely fortunate.”