An unlicensed driver has been arrested after a tire rim from a trailer he was towing came loose and killed a motorcyclist on Interstate 75 in Sumter County.
The 55-year-old motorcyclist from Acworth, Ga. had been riding with three fellow motorcyclists shortly before noon Thursday near Mile Marker 321 at Wildwood when he hit a tire rim which came loose from a trailer, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The motorcyclist died at the scene of the accident. His name has not been released.
Enmanuel Quesada Fonseca, 32, of Winter Haven, had been southbound in a truck towing a trailer when a tire rim from the trailer came loose. The tire rim rolled into the path of the motorcyclist. The motorcyclist hit the rim and the motorcyclist was ejected onto the pavement. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Sumter County EMS shift commander Stewart Eubanks.
An investigator found that the tire rim belonged to a trailer being towed by Fonseca’s truck. Fonseca does not speak English and had to be interviewed with the help of an interpreter.
He said he had been traveling southbound when he noticed his trailer “wobbling” so he stopped and checked the air pressure in the trailer’s tire and discovered that it was low. He started traveling in the outside southbound lane with his flasher flashing as he moved along at 20 miles per hour, according to the arrest report.
“He stated he saw a shadow of a rim and tire come off the trailer and he did not know where it went. He stated he was just trying to control the truck,” the investigator wrote in the arrest report.
The investigator found that Fonseca did not have a driver’s license.
He was arrested on charge of driving without a license in a case involving death. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center and released after posting $5,000 bond.
