Dangerous flying wheels are negligence, not accidents
Too bad penalties aren’t higher for such lack of care,
Will we ever get serious about the impact of vehicle-owner negligence?
A drive home from the cottage last May had tragic results for an Ontario man and his wife.
When a tire from a vehicle in oncoming traffic flew across the median and demolished the car Benjamin Schenk was driving, the lives of Schenk and his wife, Bella De Bartolo, were shattered as thoroughly as the windshield of their car.
According to a Global News report, Schenk spent six months in hospital, including being in a coma for four weeks.
He is still recovering from his injuries, while his wife, who suffered lesser injuries, is on leave to care for him. The driver of the vehicle that lost a wheel was charged under the Highway Traffic Act, Section 84: having detached parts. The maximum penalty? A $2,000 fine. Two thousand bucks for irrevocably maiming someone.
It could be as little as $100. During times when people are switching from all-season to snow tires, police see a rise in what they call “wheel separations.”
That doesn’t sound as dire as what it can mean: up to 50 kilograms of untethered rubber and steel coming at you at 100 km/h, or more.
If it’s a commercial vehicle that sheds a wheel (or any part), the fine is $2,000 to $50,000.
Last week on Ontario’s Highway 407, a UPS truck had both dual rear wheels on the driver’s side let loose.
A driver of a convertible struck by one of the flying tires was lucky to escape serious injury. Centennial College professor and mechanic Chris Muir looked at the photos from that UPS wheel separation, which reportedly occurred two weeks after a tire swap.
“Those oblong holes indicate those tires were probably not put on tight to begin with. Every time that truck accelerated, they were pulled one way, and in braking, the other. The threaded studs were hammering those round holes, oblong.”
Would the driver have had any indication?
“If they were on a trailer, maybe not. But in a cube van? That thing would have been rattling, maybe had an increasing vibration. It would have been loud and obnoxious.”
Muir points out the difference on passenger vehicles between aluminum and steel rims.
“Picture aluminum rims, which are cast, as a loaf of bread with pockets. Steel, which is forged, is that loaf flattened. If all contact surfaces are clean when wheels are mounted, there is less chance the steel rims will loosen.
“There is a greater chance that the aluminum ones will. But standard practice is when you install a set of tires, they need to be checked about 50 kilometres later to make sure there has been no loosening of the bolts.”
You have the right to drive a car if you are qualified to hold a licence, but you are obligated to keep that vehicle in proper, safe running order.
You are obligated to have good brakes, uncracked windshields, lights in good working order, and for it to be mechanically sound.
When you cheap out on parts or use untrained technicians, you can destroy other people’s lives.
Too bad the law only sees that as a (maybe) $2,000 problem.