Check your car's lug nuts..

[Ginevive]

Yesterday my boyfriend and I were driving, and out of nowhere one of our truck's (95 Nissan pathfinder) wheels pops off. Luckily he was driving not me; I had been driving earlier in the day but I am glad this happened when HE was drivin! We ended up spinning halfway around and coming to a stop on the opposite side of the road's shoulder, facing the opposite way that we had been going. We were going 35 miles an hour and it was a pretty busy section of road, right around a sharp turn.
It was completely terrifying, and we narrowly missed hitting other cars. To make it worse, our released wheel went flying at probably 60 miles an hour down the road for about 20 feet!! Amazingly, no one got hit by us or the wheel, or the flying brake disk thing (which vanished into a creek on the side of the road.)
We pulled out of it with no major problems. Mark found three lugnuts of six, put the wheel on, and we slowly drove 5 miles to the junkyard where he found a replacement brake caliper and we were on our way.
Please make sure your car and all its parts are in fine working order before driving!

[tigerlily]

Omigosh !! I'm sure that had to be a horrifing experience! I don't think I would stop shaking for at least a week! I'm glad to hear you and your boyfriend are ok! You're very lucky!

[iceman25]

Thats just terrible! I know the feeling, cause I once lost both my front tires due to the lug nuts not being tightened properly. Luckily it was at night and there was no traffic around. Glad you guys are ok.

Raj.

[Marla]

I'm glad you're both okay!

[Ginevive]

Yeah it was terrifying. Even more so, because we had been driving on a 65-mph highway only a few hours before this incident. And I was the one driving then! I am just extremely glad it happened when he was driving, and not on the highway. I do not even want to think of what could have happened with cars whizzing by at 85 mph.

[daniel1983]

When I used to work construction in New Orleans, we always had to check the lugnuts on our dump truck when we moved it because for some reason people loved to steal the large lugnuts off of the dump truck tires. I can imagine a car loosing a tire and zigzaging about....but a dump truck...geez...

Glad to hear you all are ok.

[jotay]

Sounds like some little buggers up to no good.
Kids and some adults think that type of stuff is funny.

Didn't tick anyone off lately, did you?

I always check after any work is done involving the tires or removing of.

Glad you guys are ok and no major damage.

[iceman25]

S

I always check after any work is done involving the tires or removing of.

Amen to that!

[PrincessErica]

This happened to my hubby! The wheel came off and almost rolled into a group of pedestrians. I can't believe it's happened to so many other people too!

[Ginevive]

I know, ti seems like everyone I tell the story to, says "well that happened to me... " or their mom, or friend..
I think we need to start a "lugnut awareness" email!