18-Year-Old College Student Killed After Loose Truck Tire Smashes Through Windshield

Lauren Collins, 18-Year-Old College Student Killed After Loose Truck Tire Smashes Through Windshield.Photo:Lauren Collins Memorial Scholarship Fund/Treasured Memories Community Funding

Lauren Collins Memorial Scholarship Fund/Treasured Memories Community Funding

An 18-year-old woman was killed in Kentucky after a loose tire crashed through her windshield while driving on Sunday, police say. Her mother, Amy Marsh, opened up to PEOPLE about the accident and her daughter.

Lauren Collins, a University of Kentucky student, “was operating a white, 2012 Buick LaCrosse in the southbound lanes of I-75” at the time, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement onFacebook. Police “responded to the 176.5 mile marker on southbound 1-75 for a single vehicle collision” at around 12:15 a.m., the sheriff’s office said.

“Deputies believe that another vehicle, possibly a dually pickup truck, was traveling northbound on 1-75 when its tire suddenly broke away causing it to roll out of control and over the concrete barrier, where it ultimately struck Collins' vehicle,” the statement continued. “The Walton Fire Department extricated Collins and transported her to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with life threatening injuries. Tragically, Collins passed away from her injuries while at the hospital.”

“Her service is on Saturday and we’re doing all the things you would never think you would have to do,” Collins’ mother, who was leaving the funeral home making arrangements, tells PEOPLE. “Certainly we want to know who the driver is and I know in talking to the sheriff yesterday that they had not had any luck — not that that’s going to bring her back.”

“Maybe the driver was unaware that their tire was loose, I don’t know,” Marsh adds. “It’s just hard to wrap your brain around.”

Marsh described her daughter as someone who “went to the beat of her own drum.”

“The way I would describe her — and in this tragic situation, all of her friends — have described her as she lit up a room,” she tells PEOPLE. “Her personality was very goofy, very fun, always liked to have a good time, always joking around, kind of the life of the party."

“She was funny, seriously the funniest person I know. Quirky and just a good friend. She was the type of person that so many people in this situation have referred to Lauren as ‘She was my best friend,'" she adds. “She was majoring in fashion merchandising. She wanted to be a buyer and go to New York….That was her thing. Just a very creative, free-spirited person.”

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Marsh says she last talked to Collins about 15 minutes before she died on Saturday night — after coming home from work — and that she was working two jobs to save money for college.

“She worked at Buffalo Wild Wings as a server in the evenings,” Marsh says. “She came into my room at about 11:45 and said, ‘I’m going out to meet a friend.’ I said, ‘I wish you wouldn’t go. It’s late.’ She said, ‘Well, I’m off tomorrow.’"

“I saw her leaving on our nest camera at 12:00 a.m. and I believe the accident happened at 12:13,” Marsh says, adding she was sleeping until about 2:00 a.m when she heard someone at the front door.

“I opened up my phone app and saw a police officer standing there,” she recalls, “and rushed down the steps. My husband had gotten to the door first and they told us that we needed to go immediately to the University of Cincinnati hospital and that Lauren was there.”

Marsh is divorced from Collins’ father — Keith Collins — and remarried. Collins has a brother named Kyle. “I have a continued purpose because I have to pick up for him,” she adds.

Marsh says there is a memorial fund being created in Collins’ name, to be given out annually for students at her high school that are pursuing the arts in college.

Collins’obituarystates that memorials can be made to theLauren Collins Scholarship Fund.

To provide Information that could assist in this investigation, people are encouraged to contact Sergeant Jeff Nagy at 859-334-8466.

source: people.com