LA Tulane U Student Meg Maurer ID’d As Victim In Fatal MS Rest Stop Freak Accident

GAUTIER, MS. (THECOUNT) — Margaret “Meg” Maurer has been identified as the Tulane University senior killed in a freak accident involving a passing 18-wheeler in Gautier, Mississippi on Tuesday.

Maurer, 21, was killed at a highway rest stop in Mississippi on Tuesday when she was struck by a pair of tires that came loose from a passing tractor-trailer, authorities said.

Margaret Maurer, a senior at Tulane University, who went by the nickname “Meg,” was traveling with a couple of friends for a spring break trip and had stopped at a rest area off Interstate 10 eastbound near Gautier, Mississippi, on Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, an 18-wheeler driving westbound on the highway somehow lost one of its rear dual tires.

The pair of massive tires, which are bolted together and weigh roughly 500 pounds, flew off the tractor-trailer, crossed the median strip and eastbound lanes then entered the parking lot of the rest area as Maurer was walking back to the car with her friends. The tires traveled about 850 feet before hitting her, according to the Gautier Police Department, according to ABCGO.

Maurer was pronounced dead at the scene.

Geo quick facts: Gautier is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States, along the Gulf of Mexico west of Pascagoula. It is part of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 18,572 at the 2010 census, up from 11,681 at the 2000 census. In 2002, Gautier had annexed land more than doubling its area – Wikipedia.