Loose Tire Hits Car on Freeway, Kills 5-Year-Old
A 5-year-old Buena Park girl was killed in a freak accident Wednesday when a loose tire from another car hit the Jeep Cherokee in which she was riding with her mother.
Krista Graham was pronounced dead at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center after the 8 a.m. accident on the Riverside Freeway just east of Shoemaker Road in Cerritos, authorities said.
“It’s under investigation as to where the tire came from,” said Officer Sylvia Santana, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol. “At this point we don’t have any concrete evidence.”
Krista was strapped into a car seat next to her mother, Sandra Lee Graham, 41, who was driving west in the carpool lane when the tire came bouncing from the eastbound lanes, striking the Jeep’s right front windshield and roof.
The impact caused the passenger side to cave in, inflicting massive head injuries on the child, investigators said. The mother was not injured.
No information was available about the tire, investigators said. They asked that anyone who witnessed the incident call the CHP at (562) 868-0503.
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