A flying tire is being blamed for a wreck that closed Highway 34-121 near Silverstreet for much of yesterday afternoon.

Charles Sprouse, 35, of Modock, was travelling west in his Freightliner rig on Highway 34-121 between Stoney Battery and Harold Bowers roads around 1:45 p.m. when he lost a tire.

A fellow trucker at the scene said he had been trying to tell Sprouse over CB radios that his tire was about to come off, but at the time he reached Sprouse, the tire flew off.

As the tire detached from the 18-wheeler it hit an oncoming 2004 Freightliner driven by Kenneth Small, 32, of Columbia.

The collision with the flying tire caused Small to lose control of his rig. Small’s truck veered across the road, down an embankment and overturned. Small’s load of wood chips spilled across the roadway, and his truck came to rest across the road.

Small was transported by EMS to Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital.

The road was closed for three hours as crews cleaned up the wreckage and spilt wood chips

In an unrelated wreck later yesterday afternoon, a car went through a barrier on Forest Hills Boulevard in Prosperity. The vehicle landed in a lagoon and briefly trapped two people inside.

No one was injured in the wreck.