Nanaimo woman hospitalized after runaway tire hits vehicle in Parksville

File photo

A Nanaimo woman was taken to hospital Thursday after a runaway tire hit the windshield of the car she was a passenger in.

At 9:50 a.m., Oceanside RCMP received a report of an incident on the off ramp of the Island Highway at the Parksville bypass.

RCMP officers went to the scene and discovered that a white pickup heading south had been towing a trailer and a wheel had fallen off the axle of the trailer. The wheel jumped the median and hit the windshield of a silver Honda CRV.

The driver escaped injury, but his passenger, a 66-year-old Nanaimo woman, was injured and taken to hospital.

This is the second time in just over a week that someone was injured when a tire came off a vehicle on an Island highway.

A construction worker was taken to hospital after being struck by a tire near Chemainus on March 10.