College senior on spring break killed by tires that flew off truck

Margaret Maurer

A week meant to bring fun and a respite from college studies instead ended in death for a Tulane University senior on spring break.

Margaret Maurer, 21, was walking back to her car from a restroom during a stop along a highway in Mississippi, near the town of Gautier, on Tuesday when two tires weighing a combined 500 pounds dislodged from an 18-wheeler and struck her. The tires, which the truck had been carrying and were bolted together, flew about 850 feet before hitting Maurer, who was with two friends, said the Gautier Police Department, according to ABC News.

“It’s traumatizing of course for the young ladies that were there and the family,” Capt. Casey Baxter told ABC News. “It’s heartbreaking for everybody. She was truly a victim.”

Maurer was pronounced dead at the scene. She and her friends were headed to Georgia for a hiking trip, her obituary said.

Maurer was looking forward to her graduation in May, and in doing work that combined her two passions – art and science. She was preparing for and eagerly awaiting an exhibit in coming weeks that was going to feature her work.

Tulane University President Mike Fitts said in a Facebook post: “She was planning to graduate in May to pursue a career in scientific illustration – a field that combined her skill as a scientist, her incredible artistic talent and her love of nature. We are hoping to mount an exhibition of Meg's illustrations in [Tulane's Lavin-Bernick Center] in the near future.”

Fitts described Maurer as “an extraordinarily gifted student and a leader among her peers.”

Maurer’s professor, Thomas Sherry, praised the artwork Maurer had created for a book he’s working on about birds.

“They’re just spectacular, they’re beautiful,” Sherry told ABC News. “At the very least… we have this incredible memorial to her that I hope to use in various ways to shine a light on what an outstanding student she was…She was a really special person, so it’s all the more painful. I don’t get to know every student as well as I do Meg.”

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Investigators are trying to determine how the tires broke loose from the tractor-trailer, which belonged to Dana Transports, Inc. Police told reporters the driver stopped when he realized that something had come off the truck, and turned back to see what had happened. Police said he is not at fault, and did not release his name.

Maurer’s mother, Tracy Nelson Maurer, said to KSTP of the tragedy: “I really want to be angry at somebody, but I can’t be. It just happened. It’s absolutely a random, freaky thing. It’s not right. There’s so much that’s wrong about this, but it’s just random.”