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Tire Falls Off Truck, Hits Camper On I-495 In Lawrence

LAWRENCE (CBS) -- Lawrence resident Peter Carro says when he closes his eyes, he can still see the massive tire spinning towards him.

"It looked like it was slow-motion," Carro told WBZ.

But the rubber racing towards him was moving very much at full speed.

A tractor trailer had just lost the tire on 495 North just after noon on Tuesday, and it was bouncing right towards Carro and his wife. They were sitting in the front seat of their SUV, towing their camper.

Camper crash
A trailer was struck by a tire on I-495 in Lawrence (WBZ-TV)

"And all of a sudden ahead of me I see the tire coming right straight for me," Carro explained. "And I'm trying to make a decision about what I want to do."

Carro and his family take the camper primarily to NASCAR races all over the country. It turns out, that paid off.

Carro explains: "I pay attention, I watch what happens when these guys have a tire that's flying and things are coming towards them. They never panic, they never turn the wrong way. They kind of keep a steady path through it and see what happens."

The loose tire slammed into the camper and knocked it over, dragging the SUV to a stop.

Interstate 495 Crash
State Police say a wheel that came off of a semi-truck hauling cement on Interstate 495 led to a camper rollover in Lawrence on Tuesday. (WBZ-TV)

Everything in the camper was shaken and destroyed. Carro and his wife were unharmed.

"In a nutshell, I think I'm pretty lucky to have survived that," he said Tuesday evening.

Lanes on both sides of the highway were shut down for a time. The crash remains under investigation by police.

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