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Updated: Wheel-off Incident Kills Woman on QEW
Posted: Dec 22, 2011 11:48 AM | Last Updated: Apr 2, 2012 12:11 PM

TORONTO — Tragedy struck this morning when a woman was killed by a tire that came off a tractor-trailer and struck her car.

The woman was driving north-bound towards Toronto on the QEW, north of North Shore Boulevard, when her vehicle was hit by a tire that flew off a southbound truck and bounced over the centre median.

Details are still coming in, and police don't know if the tractor-trailer that lost the tire is aware of the incident because the truck didn't stop. Anyone with information is asked to call 905-681-2511

While wheel off incidents have dropped over the last few years, don't be surprised this holiday season if friends and family quiz you regarding wheel-offs.

Industry Reaction

"It doesn't matter to us at this point whether the wheel in question came off of a truck or not," said David Bradley, president of the Candian Trucking Alliance in a press release. "This is a tragedy which should not be inflicted upon any family so we're asking all truckers, indeed the operators of all commercial vehicles, to review their wheel installation and maintenance practices and policies to try to prevent further occurrences."

Bradley was at the helm of the trucking association a decade and a half ago when a series of wheel off incidents at that time led to a comprehensive review of truck safety in the province (he co-chaired Target '97 the Government-Industry Task Force on Truck Safety) and the introduction of several improvements in Ontario's truck safety regulations now considered the toughest in North America.


Specific to wheel installation, an absolute liability fine of up to $50,000 was introduced and an OTA-developed wheel installers training program was approved by the Ontario Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities and made mandatory.


Information provided by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation shows a sharp reduction in wheel separation incidents from 215 in 1997 to 47 last year and 48 so far this year. Seven fatalities have occurred during that period with two occurring in 2011.
 

"These fatalities should not be occurring," says Bradley. "That's the bottom line."

 

 
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Anonymous

2012/01/02

at 9:36 PM

Rating
-9
40
49
Most sincere condolences go out to the family left as a result of this tragedy. We can sit back and blame whom we choose but until the investigation is complete we are wasting our time with our opinions. First, wheel security comes down to absolute correct fit of all replaced components, next cleaning and inspection of all components not requiring replacement with correct maintence of wheel hardware to manufacturer spec's. After all is installed and the installer is certain of correct component fit the final torque of wheel nuts has to be done with a torque wrench of known accuracy with some rotation of the nut observed during the final torque. Lastly a full retorque before 150 kms and regular torque checks at or before scheduled PM's. It is well known that once components move under the nuts the clamp load will drop and the wheel nut can begin to turn. Once the nut begins to rotate clamp load is ZERO and not the necessary up to 50,000 # needed to keeps components in their place. Again,if components move under the nut and with all the poor road conditions, wheel/tire vibrations and etc it is easy for the nut to rotate ( especially the LH Side of the vehicle ) and come off or lose enough to allow the wheel to wobble under the nut and break the disc out of the wheel completely. Nut Rotation Restraints ( there are many on the market ) WILL KEEP THE NUTS FROM TURNING ( this is a very major step to keeping the wheel assembly attached to the vehicle ). Devices like Pointers do nothing in this area BUT can show a professional driver nut rotation during a pre-trip if he/she has been trained as to what to look for. Many devices like the "Safety Lug Lock" to name one will still allow the driver to see wheel movement under the nuts during pre-trips and other visual inspections along the road while keeping the nuts from rotating. An opinion only of "WheelsandBrakes"

aerotug

2012/01/02

at 11:12 AM

Rating
-11
40
51
Here's a no-brainer solution. Why not borrow an idea from the aircraft industry, such as perimeter drilling the lug nuts and lockwiring them once torqued into place. Another idea would be to use a nylock design of lug nut or even drill the stud ends for a retaining pin.

jc

2012/01/02

at 11:11 AM

Rating
-15
37
52
This is a tragedy that should not happen at any time. The only thing is it will happen again even with the best of instulation procedures untill we change the manf.designes. At present the blame is always on the truck driver or company and no one looks at design. We had a set of tires come off a new trailer. The nuts were torqued at new and after the first 250 km. During the first month at about 10,000 km the wheels came off. Some one may say off shore products, but this was to be a US Gunite hub that when the court was involved they walked away. It is easy to blame the driver again,- in this case the trailer was even full inspected at the MTO scale 50 km before they came off. All the new practices and pollicies are great, they have made great improvements-215 down to 48 to help drivers and there companies but at some point you need to make equipment desing changes to reduce all wheel offs. An absolute liability fine should also include the manf. as well should it not? At some point hear ask your self a question why would anyone want to be a truck driver. Why not a fork lift operator for - GM - you can drive through the side of a trailer and thats ok (there must have been one of those circle fly's that was bothering him ). This is a new year and we need to think about the industry and what we can do to help from the driver seat up to the industry and what we are doing to make a better future for the industry.

The Road-Scholar

2011/12/26

at 2:14 PM

Rating
-14
37
51
First and foremost, my sincerest condolences to the family Chmielewski! While it is true, that the number of wheel-off events dropped tremendously in the past 15 years, we - as an industry - should not rest on our laurels. Every stakeholder should do its part: DRIVERS must improve their Daily Vehicle Inspection procedures (a DVI is not akin to a circle-check!); get on your knees (as required under the revised inspection-standard)and verify each and every component hands-on. CARRIERS must improve their Preventive Maintenance schedules & procedures. Remember, an OLF (Oil,Lube & Filter) is NOT considered preventive maintenance! How many carriers actually conform to their written Corporate Preventive Maintenance Policies? Are the time/distance criteria specified in the PM-Policy document being met at all times? Trailers usually undergo an A-Check every 90 days....are these deadlines being met consistently? Do you dispatch a mobile service provider off-site to service a trailer that is spotted at the shipper, because the service is due???....or do you just let is slip until the unit is back at your yard, maybe 2 months later??? And, last but not least, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO (Ministries of Finance & Transportation respectively): You can not wash you hands in this issue. With the rotten condition of the provincial road infrastructure, we are "off-roading" at 100 km/h up and down the highways. All these vibrations generate undue stress throughout the chassis, suspension and wheel components; the life-span of vehicles & components that are properly spec'd for highway use is greatly impacted by the government's inablility (&/or unwillingness) to re-invest the millions of fuel-tax dollars into roads & bridges. Common mortals would be criminally charged for mis-appropriation of funds (aka fraud, theft)if they were to use dedicated moneys for other reasons than initially legislated for!

The Road-Scholar

2011/12/26

at 2:14 PM

Rating
-3
42
45
First and foremost, my sincerest condolences to the family Chmielewski! While it is true, that the number of wheel-off events dropped tremendously in the past 15 years, we - as an industry - should not rest on our laurels. Every stakeholder should do its part: DRIVERS must improve their Daily Vehicle Inspection procedures (a DVI is not akin to a circle-check!); get on your knees (as required under the revised inspection-standard)and verify each and every component hands-on. CARRIERS must improve their Preventive Maintenance schedules & procedures. Remember, an OLF (Oil,Lube & Filter) is NOT considered preventive maintenance! How many carriers actually conform to their written Corporate Preventive Maintenance Policies? Are the time/distance criteria specified in the PM-Policy document being met at all times? Trailers usually undergo an A-Check every 90 days....are these deadlines being met consistently? Do you dispatch a mobile service provider off-site to service a trailer that is spotted at the shipper, because the service is due???....or do you just let is slip until the unit is back at your yard, maybe 2 months later??? And, last but not least, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO (Ministries of Finance & Transportation respectively): You can not wash you hands in this issue. With the rotten condition of the provincial road infrastructure, we are "off-roading" at 100 km/h up and down the highways. All these vibrations generate undue stress throughout the chassis, suspension and wheel components; the life-span of vehicles & components that are properly spec'd for highway use is greatly impacted by the government's inablility (&/or unwillingness) to re-invest the millions of fuel-tax dollars into roads & bridges. Common mortals would be criminally charged for mis-appropriation of funds (aka fraud, theft)if they were to use dedicated moneys for other reasons than initially legislated for!

The Road-Scholar

2011/12/26

at 2:14 PM

Rating
0
49
49
First and foremost, my sincerest condolences to the family Chmielewski! While it is true, that the number of wheel-off events dropped tremendously in the past 15 years, we - as an industry - should not rest on our laurels. Every stakeholder should do its part: DRIVERS must improve their Daily Vehicle Inspection procedures (a DVI is not akin to a circle-check!); get on your knees (as required under the revised inspection-standard)and verify each and every component hands-on. CARRIERS must improve their Preventive Maintenance schedules & procedures. Remember, an OLF (Oil,Lube & Filter) is NOT considered preventive maintenance! How many carriers actually conform to their written Corporate Preventive Maintenance Policies? Are the time/distance criteria specified in the PM-Policy document being met at all times? Trailers usually undergo an A-Check every 90 days....are these deadlines being met consistently? Do you dispatch a mobile service provider off-site to service a trailer that is spotted at the shipper, because the service is due???....or do you just let is slip until the unit is back at your yard, maybe 2 months later??? And, last but not least, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO (Ministries of Finance & Transportation respectively): You can not wash you hands in this issue. With the rotten condition of the provincial road infrastructure, we are "off-roading" at 100 km/h up and down the highways. All these vibrations generate undue stress throughout the chassis, suspension and wheel components; the life-span of vehicles & components that are properly spec'd for highway use is greatly impacted by the government's inablility (&/or unwillingness) to re-invest the millions of fuel-tax dollars into roads & bridges. Common mortals would be criminally charged for mis-appropriation of funds (aka fraud, theft)if they were to use dedicated moneys for other reasons than initially legislated for!

jfm.

2011/12/26

at 11:29 AM

Rating
-5
45
50
I believe everyone is too quick to point the finger every person in the trucking industry is under paid for the responsibilty that these jobs have. nobody is beening properly trained to do these jobs.Go down to your local tire shop and watch one guy doing the work and two watching,learninghow to do it and next week one of students will be qualifited because the other two quit to go do something else for less hours and usally more money.if you look enough the whole system is like that repair shops truckdriving tirerepair and so on.jfm.

Anonymous

2011/12/26

at 9:40 AM

Rating
3
47
44
I agree that one death is too many when it comes to a possible controlled situation. The severe drop in wheel offs since 1997 can be attribute to our Safe-T-Loc wheel nut locking and flagging device which was introduced to market then. Since then 2.5 millions pieces have been installed on Canadian fleets alone.it is now an SKF Lug Lock.Our prayers go out to this person's family.

gene michaud

2011/12/26

at 9:34 AM

Rating
3
46
43
Kthis should never happen, it was still dark outside at that time of the morning, and unless the driver just happen to be looking back at the exact time that the wheel came off he wouddn't know. the way people drive nowadays the driver of the truck has to look in his mirror really qwick because somebody will do something stupid around him that he has to compensate for. like texing or holding a coffee in one hand and a muffin in the other hand,well when they do that 'who's driving' the people has to wake up and drive. we really feel for the family that's left behind without a loved one any time of the year letalong at christmas time.

trucker575

2011/12/23

at 5:36 PM

Rating
6
46
40
well first then need to deam it as driver error or trailer melfunktion. thats what i think. i hate how the news is making it look like the driver just fled the scean we really he had no idea he lost it.i feel sorry for both partys. so close to x-mas too
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