I-4 wreck sends six to hospital

Eight people, including a baby, are in a pickup when a tire blows and the truck flips.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM, Times Staff Writer
Published November 22, 2007

A baby was thrown from a truck that crashed Wednesday, but avoided serious injury. Westbound lanes were shut down.
	[Daniel Wallace | Times]

TAMPA - A full pickup truck overturned on westbound Interstate 4 near U.S. 301 on Wednesday during rush-hour traffic, hurling a newborn in a car seat out of the vehicle.

The Florida Highway Patrol reported that the baby's only visible injury was a small cut on the back of the neck.

"When we got here, everyone was alert and the baby was crying," FHP Sgt. Richard Benton said at the scene.

The 5:10 p.m. crash shut down all westbound lanes. Two were reopened by 6 p.m.

Benton said three children and five adults had been riding in the extended-cab Ford F-150.

The children and three adults were taken to Tampa General Hospital, and there were no fatalities, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue said.

The truck, hauling ceramic tile, appears to have blown a rear tire, hit a median, rolled onto its roof and then rolled back over, he said. The tire that flattened had been worn bald.

Benton speculated that the weight of the load of tile might have been a factor in causing the tire to fail.

No one in the vehicle had a driver's license, and the owner said he had not been behind the wheel because he had been stopped a couple of times for driving without a license and feared getting arrested, Benton said.

The names of those in the truck were not available at press time.

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 813 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 21, 2007, 23:09:23]