Knoxville Driver Killed Sunday By I-40 Mystery “Object” Identified As Mark Elliott

KNOXVILLE, TN. (THECOUNT) — The Knoxville Police Department has identified the motorist killed Sunday by flying debris on Interstate 40 as Mark Elliott. He was 71.

Knoxville Police are conducting an investigation after freak accident led to the death of a Knoxville I-40 driver Sunday morning.

(ORIGINAL STORY:) Officials say they responded to the Cedar Bluff exit ramp from I-40 west on calls of driver of a vehicle being struck by an “unknown outside object” resulting in his death.

Police say the driver had other passengers in the car and they were approaching the Cedar Bluff exit when the object penetrated the driver’s side window and struck the driver.

The Knoxville Police department is saying that they have now discovered what actually struck and killed the unidentified driver Sunday morning.

The preliminary cause of the incident appears to be a metal wind skirt from a tractor-trailer that either broke off of an eastbound tractor-trailer and was thrown into the westbound lanes or the wind skirt had already come off from a truck and was thrown into the westbound lanes after being struck by another vehicle. The wind skirt hit the westbound vehicle in the driver’s window causing the death of the driver. source

Additional information will be released as the investigation continues.