Accident report judges: Woman died due to flying brake in Ringgold as an “accident”

RINGGOLD, Ga. – A rare interstate accident that killed a Soddy Daisy woman has been ruled an accident by police in Ringgold.

According to the Ringgold Police report, police have located the driver who they believe was responsible for the part that ultimately caused the accident. However, no charges will be filed against this driver.

The Ringgold Police Department released the Aug. 14 accident report to our newsroom on Tuesday in response to our repeated requests.

According to the report, a man, Autumn McClure, and a young boy were in a Hyundai Kona southbound on Interstate 75 near Exit 348 “when a large metal object struck the female passenger after passing through the windshield.”

The car pulled into a nearby Wendy's and the driver called 911.

Arriving officers found McClure unconscious and suffering from severe bleeding from his neck and chest. He worked to save her life until emergency medical services could take her to hospital, where she later died.

The report states the driver told investigators: “He believed the object had become airborne after being hit by another vehicle.”

Later, a detective assigned to the case discovered a report of a brake caliper or drum that had fallen from a semi-truck hours before the incident.

Another detective was able to recover this object.

Five days after the accident, this detective spoke with the driver of the truck who was suspected of losing the part.

This driver said he could not confirm whether the recovered part came from his truck as he had already replaced it after the incident.

The report concludes: “There would be no way to be sure that the part recovered from the accident could have come from (the driver's) truck.”

Law enforcement authorities then closed the case and ruled it an accidental death as a result of a collision with a road object.

We spoke with members of McClure's family who say McClure and her boyfriend were taking Autumn's little brother to daycare when the accident happened.Check out our story here.

A post on McClure's boyfriend's Facebook page said she turned 21 in September.

Read McClure's obituary here.