Wheel Flies Off Truck, Kills Pregnant Woman

It might have come to rest on the shoulder or settled beside a guardrail, harming no one, barely noticed.

But the wheel that somehow fell off a truck being towed Wednesday on the Capital Beltway's outer loop bounced wildly. It crossed the median, struck the grill of a tractor-trailer and ricocheted back across two shoulders and three travel lanes before landing on Channing M. Quinichett's Honda Civic.

The wheel landed on the car's roof and front windshield, killing Quinichett, a University of Maryland senior, as she drove to a prenatal massage appointment.

"Half a second earlier, she'd be 44 feet ahead; half a second later, she'd be 44 feet behind," said First Sgt. Russell Newell of the Maryland State Police. "It's truly a horrific crash."

As she drove, Quinichett, 21, called her sister and mother to talk about possible names for the baby girl due in five months: Reagan Elizabeth was a leading contender. They hung up about 1 p.m., five minutes or so before the wheel broke free between the Route 1 and Kenilworth Avenue exits in Prince George's County.

"Channing should not have been killed," said Tracy Quinichett, her mother. "She was driving along the highway just as you and I and millions of other people do every day. For that tire to fly off of that truck and strike her, something went wrong. Somebody didn't screw a nut on tight enough or something."

Newell said investigators do not know why the wheel detached from the delivery truck, which was being towed from Arlington County to Westminster, Md., for repairs to a component on its hydraulic lift.

A police investigation would have to be completed before any possible charges or citations in the case could be filed.

Quinichett, who had been living recently in Halethorpe in Baltimore County, grew up in Montgomery County, attended Redland Middle School and graduated from Magruder High School in Rockville in 2005.

She took several honors and Advanced Placement classes and was active on the school's Pom Squad, a competitive dance team that performs at athletic events, Principal Lee Evans said.

Quinichett was well-liked by faculty, staff and students, who knew her for her "angelic" smile, Evans said.

"We lost someone very special, we really did," he said. "We lost someone who really would have made a difference, and she did in the lives of those she touched."

Word of Quinichett's death spread quickly yesterday as friends and relatives struggled to comprehend what had happened. By evening, membership in a Facebook group called "RIP Channing Quinichett" had swelled beyond 130, with many people posting fond memories on the group's message board.

Shirley Osafo-Darko, the group's founder and a childhood friend of Quinichett's, said she learned of the accident early yesterday when someone put "RIP Channing" in a Facebook status message. Osafo-Darko, 20, said at first she could not believe it was the Channing she knew.

"I just called her phone like an hour ago, and now it's going to the voice mail," she said.

Osafo-Darko recalled the day Quinichett persuaded her to try out for the school's production of "The Miracle Worker," a play about the life of Helen Keller. Osafo-Darko said the two ended up getting the same role, cast as a housemaid, and agreed to split time on stage.

Channing's father, Mark Quinichett, who is divorced from Tracy Quinichett, said Channing traveled to England as a student ambassador in middle school. She recently had been working at a bank in Gaithersburg, he said.

"I'm without words," he said. "I think about the fact that she was one of the kids who did everything right."

Tracy Quinichett said Channing's boyfriend, the father of her baby, is "a magnificent young man" who was excited about the child.

Tajinder Dutta, the tractor-trailer driver who was on the inner loop Wednesday, said the wheel came out of nowhere. It approached him so fast he could not avoid it, he said.

"I've never seen anything like that," he said.

Staff writer Sarah Marston and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.