In a wheel separation or wheel-off truck accident, one or more wheels detach from a commercial truck in motion. Whether the loose wheel simply falls over or it rolls further down the road, anyone unlucky enough to collide with it may suffer major property damage, serious injuries, or even death. The truck that lost the wheel also becomes far more likely to veer dangerously out of control and crash.
Most would likely agree that ensuring the wheels stay on a truck should go without saying, yet wheel separations remain one of the leading causes of commercial truck accidents. So what could make a truck wheel break loose?
Answer: The most common causes of wheel-off truck accidents include defective or derelict parts and human errors in installation and maintenance.
Let's look more closely at each of those categories.
How Can Defective or Worn-Out Parts Cause a Wheel Separation?
For any vehicle to operate safely, all its components must be in proper working order. That means they have to be free of manufacturing defects, but even those without flaws must also be regularly maintained or replaced as needed. When important parts are defective off the factory line or aren't replaced at the end of their lifespan, the vehicle they hold together has a much higher risk of falling apart.
Manufacturing Defects
If an auto part leaves the factory with a serious defect, it's often just a matter of time until that part gives way—often during active use. For instance, some of the most common wheel assembly parts to fail are the lug nuts that attach the wheel to the hub. Sometimes the nuts are defective, and batches of them may roll off the line with misaligned threading or impurities in their composite metals. When they're shipped to truck and trailer manufacturers, the companies unknowingly use them to bolt wheels into place. Whether it happens days or months later, after five or five thousand miles, those faulty lug nuts may snap or work loose while the truck is in motion, letting a wheel break loose and cause mayhem. Such accidents and the devastation they create underscore the importance of quality control in the manufacturing process.
Wear and Tear
Using a vehicle inevitably involves wearing out its component parts, and commercial trucks are particularly prone to that due to the long miles they travel and the heavy loads they often bear. From corroded axles to overheating wheels (an estimated 24% of wheel-off crashes are caused by excessive heat from poorly-lubricated metal stress), run-down parts are a hazard to anyone that encounters the truck they're barely holding together. The chances of wheel separation are even greater if such a poorly-maintained truck travels on rough roads with potholes or uneven surfaces.
How Can Human Error Cause a Wheel-Off Accident?
Any tool, even a vehicle, is only as good as the person using it. Human error can play a big part in wheel-off accidents because anyone responsible for the truck's integrity, from its manufacturers to its drivers to its mechanics, can potentially make mistakes or neglect their duties to create and maintain a safe product.
Manufacturers
As we mentioned before, sometimes defective parts leave a factory without anyone noticing. Their manufacturers are considered responsible for ensuring the products they make and ship are safe and properly made; when that doesn't happen and a defective product causes an accident, the manufacturer may be liable for the damage done to the victim. Proving the product was defective generally requires careful forensic investigation, but confirming it can potentially save thousands of other people driving around with the same faulty parts in their vehicles.
Truck Drivers
It generally falls to truck drivers to monitor their trucks' condition and discover any problems before disaster strikes. Every trip in their trucks is required by federal law to begin and end with a careful inspection of critical systems—including the wheels. If they fail to conduct that inspection, overlook major issues, or just don't report problems in a timely manner, they might be traveling full-tilt down a highway when a worn-out or damaged part finally gives way.
Speaking of traveling full-tilt, the driver's behavior at the wheel can also have significant impact on the condition of the truck. Excessive speeds, too many sharp turns, and other forms of aggressive driving can put additional stress on the wheel components, making them more susceptible to failure.
Mechanics
Poorly-trained maintenance crews or those rushing through their tasks may do an inadequate job of attaching or re-attaching the wheels of a truck. Once again using lug nuts as an example, mechanics must apply specific torque values when using them to attach a wheel to its hub. If too much torque is applied, that could make the nut or the stud fracture or damage their threads. On the other hand, too little torque may leave the nut loose, allowing it to gradually work its way free. These issues are more common than you might think; the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) estimates that around 40% of wheel-off accidents occur due to loose or missing lug nuts and studs. Improperly-aligned wheels put on by mechanics may also cause uneven pressure on the nuts and bolts, potentially leading to serious issues over time.
Grossman Law Offices Can Help
When a wheel-off truck accident causes serious injuries or even the loss of someone's life, the person or people responsible for that should be held accountable. That's easier said than done, though. As we've talked about, it could include the truck driver, his employer, the truck manufacturer, and even whoever is tasked with keeping the truck roadworthy. Sorting through this list of potential wrongdoers is often too much for crash scene investigators.
In that situation a good truck accident lawyer can be an invaluable ally, both for learning exactly why the wheel separated from the truck and for using the answers to seek accountability. The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have decades of experience investigating all kinds of truck accidents, including those caused by wheel separation. If you were injured or lost a loved in an accident with an 18-wheeler, call us day or night for a free and confidential consultation.
