Driver may not have known trailer duals broke off crashing intoa SUV on I-79

How did he get away, the axle & brake drum scrapping along the road. Couldn't have gotten very far. Very sad, that SUV Driver probably never saw it coming. God Bless him and his Loved Ones.
 
How did he get away, the axle & brake drum scrapping along the road. Couldn't have gotten very far. Very sad, that SUV Driver probably never saw it coming. God Bless him and his Loved Ones.

Sugarfoot, he would have never known his wheels came off on a tandem axle trailer. I was behind another TT on the NJ Turnpike many years ago when a similar thing happened. All of a sudden I saw a dual wheel assembly with hub and brake drum intact roll off the trailer ahead of me and continue bouncing along the roadway till it went off the road. This was before CB days and I blinked my headlights for a while to get the driver to stop but he rolled on never feeling a thing. The axle that lost the wheel dropped a bit but never got close to the ground so the driver might never know what happened. Because of the way the spring hangers/suspension is constructed, on most trailers you can still pull it with one or both wheel sets (on the same axle of course) missing.
 
I agree with you Triplex,if he was empty,or had very little weight, he may have never known,until he stopped & did a post trip.
 
I agree with you Triplex,if he was empty,or had very little weight, he may have never known,until he stopped & did a post trip.

I would have loved to have seen the expression on his face when he did that post trip Apostolic! :biglaugh:
 
We have one guy that if you ask him what side the oil dipstick is on he would have to guess. He drives a Mack. ...I'm guessing he wouldn't even know how to shut the hood. There is a safety catch.
 
Had a similar incident happen to me some years ago, this was before 1-78 was completed around Allentown, Pa. I was traveling east on U.S. 22, paid my toll just before crossing the Delaware, crossing into Jersey. Going up the hill in Phillipsburg, NJ a local policeman pulled me over. I had lost a set of tandems. Don't know when they came off. I got into the police car and we went at least 20 miles back west looking and we never saw any trace of the wheels or any damage to anything. I was pulling a flatbed loaded with reels of cable and never had any indication that anything was wrong, until the police pulled me over.

It can happen. Lucky for me, nothing ever came out of this.
 
About 10 years ago,a friend of mine that works for NEMF was heading back to the Rochester NY terminal from the southern tier.
Suddenly with no warning a left steer wheel broke off,dropping the spindle of his day cab down into the asphalt.

As he watched in horror as it ran across the median jumped high in the air,then drove through a southbound cars windshield.
It was instant death for that driver fortunately the lone occupant.

After the investigation it was ruled non-chargeable, an act of God,as there was noway anyone could have detected the defect.

However it is something my friend really felt bad about,something he will never forget.
 
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About 10 years ago,a friend of mine that works for NEMF was heading back to the Rochester NY terminal from the southern tier.
Suddenly with no warning a left steer wheel broke off,dropping the spindle of his day cab down into the asphalt.

As he watched in horror as it ran across the median jumped high in the air,then drove through a southbound cars windshield.
It was instant death for that driver fortunately the lone occupant.

After the investigation it was ruled non-chargeable, an act of God,as there was noway anyone could have detected the defect.

However it is something my friend really felt dad about,something he will never forget.

Wow. I lost two right side drives back in 1983. Fortunately, no won was injured. I think about it from time to time, especially whenever I pass where it happened.
 
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