OPP charge driver after tire comes off and damages 3 vehicles on QEW

Article content

Police in Mississauga, Ontario have charged the driver of a vehicle who’s wheel came off on the Queen Elizabeth Highway, struck multiple other vehicles, and caused lane restrictions in both directions. 

The OPP Highway Safety Division posted about the traffic disruption on Sunday morning at 9:53 AM, attaching an image of a vehicle with a smashed windshield in the eastbound lane near Cawthra Rd. 

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

OPP charge driver after tire comes off and damages 3 vehicles on QEW Back to video

It’s a well-timed reminder as drivers across the nation change to winter tires: you should always have the lug nuts re-torqued around 50—100 km following a tire change or rotation, or any wheel-off service. 

If you don’t, you could end up like this poor sap. 

Article content

Apparently the car’s left front tire came bouncing off while the vehicle was travelling down the road and struck two other vehicles, causing debris to fly off and strike another vehicle’s windshield. That’s three damaged vehicles, plus the one that lost the tire. A real mess, all due to a loose nut or two. 

As pointed out by a Twitter commenter, the tires on this vehicle appear to be worn all seasons and not winters, so the driver can’t even blame the incident on a recent change to seasonally-appropriate tires.  

Whatever fine accompanies the charge will likely pale in comparison to what’ll happen to this driver’s insurance rates once the damage on all three of the vehicles involved gets tallied up.