Joe C. Shelton, Jr., 54, from Pleasant view, has been identified as the man killed Tuesday morning when a large chunk of concrete came through the windshield of his Nissan GT-R sports car on I-24 near downtown.
Police say, it appears likely that the chunk of concrete was thrown from the Shelby Avenue Bridge. TDOT bridge inspectors determined that the concrete was not a part of the bridge structure, but more closely resembled a roadway curb.
The concrete chunk traveled through Shelton’s windshield and hit him in the face at approximately 4:54 a.m. as he was driving to work at the Nissan plant in Smyrna. The Nissan then sideswiped a Toyota pickup truck and a guard rail before coming to final rest on I-24’s Silliman Evans Bridge.
Investigators are reviewing available surveillance cameras in the area of the I-24/Shelby Avenue interchange, but do not yet have any description of a person(s) who may have thrown the concrete chunk from the bridge.
