Killed was the son of two of our longest known friends...
How does a transmission "fall out", and what charges could stem from that? Had the other driver improperly modified his car, perhaps?



RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A 27-year-old man is dead after debris flew through the windshield of his vehicle during a crash on Interstate 840 late Saturday night.

The crash happened Saturday night at mile marker 58 on Interstate 840. According to THP, a 1994 Ford Mustang was traveling eastbound when the transmission dropped from under the vehicle. Officials said the debris from the transmission parts ricocheted when it hit the roadway, went airborne and made contact with three different vehicles.

The THP reported the other three vehicles involved were traveling westbound on I-840 when they were struck by the transmission parts. Officials say when the parts hit the front bumper of an Infinity Q70, it caused the hood to come off, slam into the windshield and deploy the airbags.

The parts then made contact with a Toyota Corolla, piercing the vehicle’s front left tire. Both the Infiniti and Toyota were able to come to a stop on the right shoulder.

THP said the debris then went through a Nissan Rogue, striking 27-year-old Nathanial Perkins, of Smyrna, killing him.

According to THP, charges were pending against the driver of the 1994 Ford Mustang. The case has now been handed over to the District Attorney’s Office.


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There has to be a lot more to the story, both how this physically happened and a lot of other circumstances with so many vehicles involved. News stories are often written to a very low standard.

You're right, seems like a very unlikely event to have a transmission just "fall out" and some sort of gross negligence would fit that scenario.

Sorry to hear about your good friends son. What a terrible scenario.

While I’m no expert, a transmission doesn’t just fall out like a gun doesn’t just go off.

Sounds like there was a catastrophic transmission failure. Whether due to age, bad rebuild, hot-rodding, or a combo of all the above.

The accident reconstruction and exam of the car will tell the tale.

My personal attorney was killed on I-70 East west of Columbus in a very similar fashion. A piece of scrap metal from an unsecured load on a flatbed semi rig went through his windshield and struck him
I took the incident on personally because I wanted the responsible party caught. No one ever was.
I think the age of the car may be a factor here. If there are charges, they may be secondary to the event. Such as driving without a license, no insurance, unsafe vehicle, etc.

Last year, I was driving my Sienna van on I-40 in AZ during the daytime, going 80 MPH and a large pickup truck was ahead of me towing a flat trailer. All of a sudden, the trailer just disintegrated, just fell apart and parts were flying towards me. I was dodging these parts and by the grace of God, none hit me. Afterwards, I was shaking slightly, I thought I really got lucky on that one.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
There has to be a lot more to the story, both how this physically happened and a lot of other circumstances with so many vehicles involved. News stories are often written to a very low standard.

You're right, seems like a very unlikely event to have a transmission just "fall out" and some sort of gross negligence would fit that scenario.

I agree, the news is a poor substitute for information, actually reporting facts.

It could be a drive train issue not a transmission issue, like a driveshaft letting go. It could also be the Mustang had a manual transmission.
Back in the day we would run explosion proof steel bell housings to hold the clutch, and heavy flywheel in encase the flywheel or clutch exploded under VERY SEVERE, high RPM use and then disintegration.

I can't see an automatic trans exploding unless a torque converter was able to sheer off of the flex plate.

My guess would be a 1994 Mustang was NOT stock and probably modified improperly.

Fall of 1970 I experienced a catastrophic stick shift transmission failure of a Muncie 4 speed in 4th gear at around 70 mph. To this day I cannot tell you what happened but it suddenly locked up with a loud bang.

Dropped the front of the driveshaft onto the pavement, broke the bell housing into two large pieces and snapped the tail shaft housing as the transmission and the rear half of the bell housing rotated. While the main case was cracked it was intact containing all the internal parts.

Transmission was full of lube, U-joints were good, in fact the car was on a hoist a couple days before for an oil change.

Came down to two theories, one was an internal gear fractured and the debris locked it up, second was a shifter failure, it was a bit on the sloppy side.

quote:

My guess would be a 1994 Mustang was NOT stock and probably modified improperly.

Or it was just old, worn and something failed, if it came out of a 94 Buick nobody would be talking about modifications.

As to the question at hand, what can he be charged with, unsure, any renumeration is going to be in the form of an insurance payout to the family, probably end up that it's an accident, you'd have to prove negligence, certainly the guy in the Mustang didn't leave the house intending to hurt or kill someone with his transmission.

Pretty sure there's an accident attorney somewhere that would be interested, provided the mustang has sufficient insurance, and the person who was killed has coverage so they can recover maximum funds.

I don't see much of a criminal case just based on what's been posted. If the vehicle passed inspection and this simply happened in the absence of negligence it's not clear why charges would be pending from the transmission itself.

Could be charges for lack of a DL, registration, proof of insurance or something else that is not causative to the accident.

quote:

If the vehicle passed inspection

IF it's a TN vehicle, there is no state inspection. There's really only ~15 states that have "stringent" inspections.

Thank you all for the thoughts and wishes.

HRK I'm sorry that your mind goes there in this horrifying tragedy. This isn't about "funds".

I’ve known two people, one was a retired LEO who was a customer and one I had worked with in another car dealership in the 70’s who were killed by something coming through a windshield.

About the mid 70’s one night I missed an axle shaft, brake drum, wheel and tire assembly that crossed a five lane highway in front of me.

"At this time charges are no longer pending" is the latest update I've seen. Sounds like confusion in reporting, but I haven't seen any more details about what actually happened.

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
Thank you all for the thoughts and wishes.

HRK I'm sorry that your mind goes there in this horrifying tragedy. This isn't about "funds".

Sorry about the loss, understand you're under quite a bit of stress.

It's difficult to deal with things like this that come out of nowhere. Condolences to you and your friends.

The point I was making was that outside of some odd charge such as wreck less driving, racing, DUI,
the article doesn't leave much clue as to what criminal action could happen, and, that more often than not the result is through civil action, not criminal.

Maybe five years ago we had a near-miss from a wheel and tire that fell off an oncoming jalopy on I-25 in Pueblo, Colorado. It was rolling/bouncing towards us, and bounced over the median barrier, but fortunately we were able to evade it.

Appreciate everyone's thoughts, and followup posting.

That is terrible, but “How” do things like this happen?

Someone’s incompetence and/or carelessness. Dropping potentially lethal debris, etc., on the highway is fairly common, but because injuries seldom result, there are virtually no penalties when it happens.

The closest I and my wife have come to being injured, if not worse, was having a length of heavy chain thrown from a semi (from a tire, evidently) through the back window of our car. It was stopped by a load of furniture and boxes, but without them it’s hard to say what could have happened.

Back in 2005 I was driving my brand new Dodge Magnum. That car had just come out, was really hot, and I was a super proud owner.

I was driving down I-4 between Tampa and Orlando. Three lanes wide at this point. I was in the left lane going around 70mph. Fairly thick traffic, people in front, behind and to the side of me, but traffic was still flowing smoothly.

I saw something in the road up ahead, it looked like a rock, about the size of a softball. Well, the box truck up the road in front of me glanced the piece of debris with its rear tire. And that is when the "rock" spun and revealed itself as the driveshaft of an 18 wheeler. It was now sitting perpendicular to my direction of travel, across my lane. I had a fraction of a second to realize I had no choice but to hit it. Which I did at 70mph.

As I slowed and limped to the side of the road with a severely bent rim, I passed the 18 wheeler who had dropped the driveshaft. And also a few other cars that had already hit it.

Thankfully the thing was heavy and stayed on the ground. Had it become airborne....

But had it, outside of insurance, I am not sure that there could have been any criminal recourse.

My sincere condolences to you and your friends.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
That is terrible, but “How” do things like this happen?

Someone’s incompetence and/or carelessness. Dropping potentially lethal debris, etc., on the highway is fairly common, but because injuries seldom result, there are virtually no penalties when it happens.

The closest I and my wife have come to being injured, if not worse, was having a length of heavy chain thrown from a semi (from a tire, evidently) through the back window of our car. It was stopped by a load of furniture and boxes, but without them it’s hard to say what could have happened.

Strangest thing I’ve ever seen on a roadway was in the early 90’s. A complete small block Chevy engine in an intersection, looked like he turned and it fell out or off a truck or a trailer.

Most likely poor maintenance or improper maintenance cause the driveshaft to come loose, leading the transmission parts flying out.

It would not be due to age. I was an auto mechanic for a few years, pulled out probably over 100 transmissions. If the transmission failed and blew up, would have been overloaded.

So, possibly the engine was modified for more power, and is the underlying problem.