TORONTO – Several vehicles were damaged after a tire flew off a minivan on the northbound Hwy. 427 ramp to the eastbound Hwy. 401 Monday.
No injuries were reported.
The incident took place at around 6 a.m.
A front left tire came off a minivan and bounced into lanes of oncoming traffic, striking at least five vehicles.
Video
680News reporter Carl Hanstke recaps what happened when a tire flew off a minivan on Hwy. 427 and struck several vehicles
One of the vehicles hit by the tire belongs to 680News reporter Carl Hanstke.
“I didn’t even really see it coming. All of a sudden, this blur of black, ‘oh my God, there’s a tire,’ and before I could even move, it struck the side of my SUV and kind of slid underneath I guess because I really banged up in the air as I ran over it, so it was quite a thump, quite a scare,” Hanstke said.
According to Hanstke, one driver lost control of their vehicle and went off the highway into a grassy area.
Police told 680News the driver of the minivan has been charged with operation of an unsafe vehicle.
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How can you not know that a wheel is about to come off? I have had vandles loosen lugnuts on my vehicle in the past and as soon as you start to drive it shakes badly… I can only imagine that at highway speed that the minivan must have been nearly uncontrollable from the amount of shaking. I have over 500,000 kms on my minivan and it’s in better shape than a lot of new vehicles because I take care of it and have it serviced… There is no excuse for driving an unsafe vehicle on any road.
THank goodness no one was hurt! now any driver’s who are caught with dangerous and unsafe driving should have their licence REVOKED!!!!
Most people do not even know they have a bad wheel bearing and if left unattended it will cause the wheel to break away from the vehicle, it should be common knowledge if you drive but it’s not. If your car starts to make a growl / grind noise at higher speeds a wheel bearing is probably starting to fail. It is easy to confirm if you hit an S bend in the road around 80 – 100 KPH and the noise gets louder as you sway one way and lower as you sway the other verses the straight line noise level. It can be difficult to determine whether it’s the left or right bearing while driving depending whether it’s the inner or outer roller. Spinning the wheels with the car on a hoist should be able to find the bad one. When the noise starts you typically have 2 -4 weeks before the bearing fails, wheel comes flyinng off car possibly losing control, repair cost triple and other people become victims of your neglect so don’t ignore the warning signs and repair it ASAP. tyoically a bearing cost $120 – $200 and 1 – 1.5 hours labour.
If the noise is at low speed especially while turning a corner then you have a half shaft constant velocity joint starting to fail which is not as dangerous but will leave you stranded. You can test a CV shaft by making tight turns at low speed in a flat parking lot, Cost is about the same as a bearing repair.
That’s it for auto 101 today, I hope it helps avoid a few repeat events.
Kevin, chassis quality engineer .
Hey Carl What’s the odds of that ????????????? Making news on the way to tell us the news !!
Thank God you were not hurt !!! You should buy A 649 & a Max to-day !!!