A 21-year-old father of a four-month-old baby girl is dead after a tire flew from a trailer into the windshield of the SUV he was a passenger in on a Texas highway.
Clayton Vaughan was in the passenger seat of a Kia SUV being driven by his girlfriend when the freak accident happened on the Katy Freeway, in Houston at around 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday.
The horror accident happened when a tire came loose from a landscaping-style trailer driving in the eastbound lane which bounced over into the westbound lanes. A picture of the wreckage shows the passenger side of the windshield completely caved in.
The driver of the vehicle from which the tire came did not stop, leaving the victims, observers, and law enforcement officers with many questions about precisely what had happened.
Vaughan’s girlfriend, the mother of their four-month older daughter, is expected to be okay.
21-year-old Clayton Vaughan was killed last Thursday when a loose tired slammed into the car he was a passenger in on a Texas freeway
The Kia SUV that was totaled when the loose tired slammed into it on the freeway
Initially, deputies with the constable’s officer thought the tire had come from an 18-wheeler, but after speaking with more witnesses, they threw out that theory.
One witness saw the tire fly off the trailer of a black truck that did not have a license plate. The tire bounced several times before it made contact with another truck.
It then rolled into the the HOV lane, where a white pickup truck hit it before it bounced over the barrier.
When it finally hit the victims’ Kia, it slammed into the windshield, glass flew everywhere, the car’s hood popped up and the car started spinning. The Kia veered across all six lanes of the highway before hitting the outside wall.
The witness, Randrell Alexander, said the whole incident happened quickly, but she was, during one moment of the chaos, side by side with the driver of the truck that the tire fell from.
‘I know he saw it out of his rear-view (mirror), because he let his window down,’ she said. ‘It happened so fast, but by the time we got side by side, it was like he was going to stop. But I’m sure he saw what I saw, and he started driving slow.’
According to the constable’s office, the driver could be charged with failure to stop and render aid, if and when he is found.
Whether or not the driver is charged will depend upon evidence presented to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Vaughan’s uncle, Evan Richard, told a local ABC affiliate that the family hopes more witnesses will come forward in the hopes of getting more answers about what happened.
‘I’m not here to place judgement,’ he said. ‘Things happen, but obviously, negligence of some sort played a role in this. He was a passenger in a vehicle struck by an oncoming tire.
‘What are the chances of something like this happening? [You should] know, you are endangering lives around you, and I can’t bring him back. But I can get the message out that you can do better. The city can do better.’
Vaughan (right) with his mother and younger brother
Vaughan (left) with his aunt Priscilla Stansell and brother
The multi-lane Katy freeway in Houston on which the accident occurred
Vaughan was the father to a four-month-old baby daughter when he died last week
Richard said his nephew’s life was taken before his time and before he got a chance to watch his daughter grow up.
But Richard says Vaughan will be remembered for the loving person he was.
‘He was a big old teddy bear,’ he said.
‘He was a young 21-year-old trying to find himself in this hectic world.’
Vaughan’s aunt, Priscilla Stansell, established a GoFundMe for funeral expenses for new nephew, as well as for funds to raise his now fatherless baby daughter.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk