A LORRY driver is "lucky to be alive" after a tyre fell off a passing truck, bounced and smashed into the front of his cab.
Brian Wood, a haulier from Great Baddow, was driving southbound on the A12 near Marks Tey at 1pm on Thursday last week when a dustcart on the opposite carriageway lost two of its four back wheels.
The 62-year-old looked on in horror as one of the wheels hit the central reservation and was catapulted into the oncoming traffic.
"I could have died," said Mr Wood, who was delivering malt from Stowmarket in Suffolk.
"I thought 'the world is big enough – why is this thing hurtling towards me?'"
Mr Wood, a grandfather of four, braced himself as the tyre bounced in front of his lorry and flew towards his windscreen.
"All of a sudden there was nowhere for me to go," said Mr Wood, who was travelling at 50 miles per hour.
"There was a car to the right of me and a car to the left of me."
The tyre, which is thought to have fallen off the back right-hand side of a street-cleaning vehicle, then hit Mr Wood's 25-year-old red lorry.
"I saw this big cloud of dust and I saw the back end of this lorry hit the ground," said Mr Wood.
The steel bumper of the 17-tonne truck took the brunt of the damage but the tyre also rolled up the bonnet and knocked the sun visor off.
But, amazingly, Mr Wood did not stop – instead driving half-a-mile before pulling into a service station to survey the damage. "The police said I was lucky to be alive. They said it could have very easily been a fatality," he said.
The father of two, who was on his way to Lewes, East Sussex, claims his lorry, which has done 1.5 million miles, has been written-off by the accident.
"Because it is so old the problem we've got is sourcing parts for it," said Mr Wood.
"When I called my wife she started crying.
She said someone could have quite easily been calling to say I was dead."
The dustcart was a privately owned vehicle.
PC Al Cuthbertson, part of the commercial vehicles unit at Essex Police, said: "It's not uncommon. Chances are he had some tyres changed but did not tighten them up properly.
"I would remind all drivers to take care of their vehicles and make sure their tyres are fitted correctly."
