Ontario Provincial Police say a truck being driven on Highway 417 in rural west Ottawa lost one of its wheels, causing some lane closures Tuesday morning. The incident happened in the eastbound lanes near Panmure Road at around 10 a.m. according to Ottawa OPP Const. Michael Fathi. The truck was hauling a trailer with a Bobcat inside, Fathi said on social media, when it lost one of its wheels. No one was hurt. The driver had just put winter tires on the truck, Fathi said. “We do see this often. Usually in the springtime and in the winter with the tire changeovers,” Fathi told CTV News Ottawa. “In this case the tire did go into the ditch. The driver himself was able to recover the tire. But in other instances, we’ve seen it fly over the center median into oncoming traffic and cause fatalities.” Fathi says its important to get tires double torqued to ensure they stay on your vehicle, but in this situation, the vehicle’s tire had been over-torqued. “The bolts can be put on too tightly, so they can become stripped if they’re reinforced too much. So that is, in this case, that’s what happened where the vehicle’s bolts were actually stripped and they came right off,” Fathi said. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation inspected the vehicle. Charges are pending against the company that owns it, OPP say. With files from CTV’s Dylan Dyson.
