A driver speeding in her car with a missing tire crashed and died near a north Minneapolis intersection shortly before sunrise Tuesday, authorities said.
The wreck occurred about 5:30 a.m. just east of Theodore Wirth Regional Park on N. Glenwood Avenue near Xerxes Avenue, according to police.
Officers arrived at the scene to find the driver, a woman from Minneapolis in her mid-30s, pinned beneath the overturned vehicle, said police spokesman John Elder. Her identity has yet to be released.
The car was heading east on Glenwood "without a right front tire before leaving the roadway," Elder said. The vehicle continued on the grass "for a while" before it rolled over and came to rest with its wheels up, he said.
"There are gouge marks in the roadway for quite some distance" from the rim rolling on the pavement, the spokesman said. Investigators have yet to figure out how the tire came off the car.
Elder said that excessive speed and the failure to wear a seat belt were primary factors leading to the woman's death.
Traffic on Glenwood was blocked for more than 2½ hours as investigators sized up the crash scene, he said.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
