Singer Aaron Carter OK After SUV Accident
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Aaron Carter (search) managed to escape serious injury Thursday when the teen pop singer's luxury sport utility vehicle erupted into flames in a bizarre accident, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Carter, 17, was driving his 2004 Cadillac Escalade (search) north to Orlando at about 12:30 a.m. when a mattress came loose from the cargo bed of a delivery truck in front of him, said his spokesman, Brad Zeifman.
Carter drove over the mattress, which got stuck under the sport utility vehicle and caught fire, probably from the heat of the exhaust system. The singer pulled over and escaped the vehicle, then watched it explode in flames, Zeifman said. A friend traveling with him also escaped.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Carter and his friend were treated at the scene.
"Everything happened in such a whirlwind," Carter said in a statement released to The Associated Press. "It was like the mattress flew out of nowhere. You think you're invincible when you're behind the steering wheel of an SUV but you're not. I'm OK but you can imagine I'm still in shock."
Carter, the younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter (search), has released several albums. He arrived in Orlando for a photo shoot for the cover of his next single, "Saturday Night," due out in March, Zeifman said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}State troopers said the delivery truck never stopped.