A college student was killed “almost instantly” when a car part flew off the back of a truck on a Georgia highway, smashing through the windshield of the car she was in.
Autumn McClure, 20, was in the passenger seat of boyfriend Tyler Nunley’s car on their way to drop her little brother off at daycare Wednesday when the brake caliper flew off the back of a truck, according to her family.
It slammed into her chest and neck, killing her “almost instantly,” her family said in a series of grief-stricken posts.
“My beautiful baby sister Autumn McClure was tragically killed this morning in a crazy car accident,” her sister, Simone Matherly, wrote in one Facebook post.
“Myself and my family are in complete disbelief,” she said. “It still doesn’t seem real.”
The freak incident happened on I-75 in Ringgold, Georgia.
Police there are investigating the incident but could not share further details, WTVC reported.
A photo shared online shows a gray Hyundai with a gaping hole in its shattered windshield.
McClure, a lifelong resident of Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, just north of the Georgia border, died before emergency services could arrive, her brother, Collin Le, said in a Facebook post.
“Take a minute to call your love ones / siblings,” Le wrote. “Also, for the ones that drive a truck with stuff thrown in the bed, please take a minute to evaluate the potential risk of those items flying out, causing injury to others.”
McClure also had a twin sister, Ivy, and the two were set to turn 21 next month. “I don’t have many words just that I love you and will miss you for the rest of my life,” Ivy wrote on Facebook. “You will always be my other half.”
McClure was also survived by her mother, another brother, nieces and the “love of her life,” Nunley.
“Autumn, you were the brightest, most spectacular part of my life,” her heartbroken boyfriend wrote in an Instagram post.
“I was always so excited to make it home to see you, to say hi, hug you, pick you up, hear about your day, hear about all your work drama, and most especially to give you your daily foot rub that you loved so much,” Nunley said.
“I hope you might watch over me and help me be strong,” he added.
Autumn was the Class of 2022 salutatorian at Soddy-Daisy High School and was enrolled in a graphic design program at Chattanooga State Community College, according to a GoFundMe page organized by Le.
“As teachers, we’re not supposed to have favorites but Autumn was one of my brightest stars,” Emily Bassett, one of McClure’s graphics arts professors at Chattanooga State, wrote on social media.
“She had such a promising future, and I was so looking forward to seeing her sweet face this Monday,” Bassett wrote.
An online obituary written by her family described her as a “sweet soul” that “touched so many people.”
“She was bright and caring and so incredibly smart,” it said. “There are not nearly enough words to describe the beauty of our girl.”
