Falling Gas Tanks Kill Ruskin Woman In I-75 Accident

TAMPA, FL — A woman was killed Friday when some gas tanks being hauled by a tractor-trailer truck fell off and landed on the car she was in, authorities said.

The accident backed up traffic for several hours on northbound Interstate 75 in Hillsborough County.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, at 10:05 a.m., the tractor-trailer truck driven by a 48-year-old St. Petersburg man was heading north on I-75 when it struck another tractor-trailer truck driven by a 31-year-old Miami man that was stopped along the outside shoulder of the highway at Exit 256 to the Selmon Expressway.

The crash knocked some gas tanks off the first tractor-trailer truck. They landed on a Buick Enclave driven by a 21-year-old Ruskin woman and carrying three other people: a 49-year-old Ruskin woman and two children, ages 10 and 4.

The impact killed the 49-year-old woman. The children and the 21-year-old driver suffered minor injuries. Both truck drivers also had minor injuries.

Additionally, the second truck, which was carrying clothes, caught on fire.