Van hit as lorry loses tyre
A shocked driver and two passengers had a narrow escape today when a large tyre flew off a lorry at a roundabout and smashed into the bonnet of their van.
One of six tyres on the lorry's trailer came off the wheel at around 8am and hit the van waiting at the junction of Narrowboat Way and Hurst Lane, Brierley Hill.
The three people in the Peugeot Expert van were on their way to pick up painting materials from the Crown Centre, in Stourbridge, for a job in Leicester.
Tom Hanson, his mother Karen and cousin Matt Bidmead, run family business Hanson Building Contractors, in Hillcrest Business Park.
Van driver Tom, 25, of Five Barsham Drive, Withymoor, Amblecote, spoke of his shock to see the tyre shooting towards him.
He said: "We were slowing down into the junction as the lorry was pulling round.
"There was a massive bang. It was like a bomb going off."
The 50-year-old lorry driver said he was delivering a forklift truck to Deepdale Engineering, in Pedmore Road, Dudley.
