Stray truck wheel strikes children
MILTON — A runaway wheel on a semitrailer truck hit children outside a Milton day care Thursday.
The vehicle was traveling north on Highway 26 at 10:45 a.m. when the wheel rolled off near McEwan Lane and hit three children and one adult outside Small Wonders Childcare, Milton Police Lt. John Conger said.
A 5-year-old girl was transported to University Hospital in Madison, Conger said, and the others were uninjured.
Police refused to release the girl’s name because she is a juvenile and her condition was unknown Friday night.
The cause of the crash was lug nuts improperly holding the wheel to the vehicle, Conger said.
The truck driver, Roger Brighton, 55, Monticello, Iowa, was delivering trusses and didn’t know a wheel had spun off his vehicle, Conger said.
A day care worker saw the wheel and tried to slow it down or stop it from hitting the children, he said.
The driver continued traveling to Whitewater to make a delivery, Conger said, and he was unaware of the missing wheel until police stopped him upon his return to Milton.
The driver was not ticketed, he said, and the incident remains under investigation.
A note was sent to parents Thursday notifying them of the incident, said Julia Walters, the day care’s office manager.
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