A man driving on a Tennessee interstate highway was killed Sunday morning when a metal wind skirt struck and penetrated his vehicle, WBIR reported.
Mark Elliot, 71, of St. Louis, was pronounced dead at the scene after the metal debris crashed into the windshield of his Acura MDX on I-40 around 10:35 a.m., the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.
A metal wind skirt is a square piece of metal that is positioned in front of the first tire of the trailer, behind the cab of the truck, WBIR reported.
Authorities believe the wind skirt either broke away from an eastbound tractor trailer and was thrown onto the westbound lanes, or was already on the lanes when it was hit by another vehicle, the News Sentinel reported.
"With it coming from the side, they probably never saw it coming," Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk said. "One of the passengers in the vehicle was able to act quickly and turn the car because they saw the ramp. They got the vehicle over to the Cedar Bluff ramp, and because the ramp goes uphill, the vehicle was able to come to a stop on its own."
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