Man dead after flying wheel crushes SUV on Hwy. 400

A 69-year-old man has died after a wheel came off of a tractor-trailer and crushed his SUV.

The man was airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries and later succumbed to his injuries.

It happened in the northbound lanes of Highway 400, between King and Aurora roads, around 9:18 a.m. on Wednesday, Ontario provincial police say.

Police say the lumber truck was heading southbound on Highway 400 when a set of tandem tires from the trailer’s right rear side snapped off and bounced into the northbound lanes, hitting a GMC Yukon. The driver lost control and his SUV ended up in the ditch.

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“The GMC Yukon was travelling northbound Highway 400, north of King Road, when a transport truck that was travelling southbound lost a set of dual wheels,” OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said at the scene.

“One of those dual wheels bounced over into the northbound lanes.”

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The driver of truck did stop, but a kilometre-and-a-half south of the scene after realizing he lost a set of his wheels.

The impact was so severe that it crushed the hood, shattered the windshield and crumpled half of the roof into the cab portion of the car. The driver was trapped under the buckled metal for some time, but freed by paramedics.

“The crushing is really onto the hood into the windshield and onto the roof. That roof is pushed down and rearwards into the occupant compartment,” Schmidt said.

The highway was closed near King Road, but has since reopened.

No other injuries were reported.

Last year, the Ministry of Transportation recorded 82 cases of ‘separated’ wheels on Ontario highways. Although those numbers are high, they were much higher in 1997 at 215.

Below is a list of cases from 2010 to 2015:

• 2010: 47
• 2011: 56
• 2012: 97
• 2013: 147
• 2014: 148
• 2015: 82

Source: Ministry of Transportation