XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: robban@clubtelco.com   
      
   On 20/01/2014 6:24 pm, Greg Goss wrote:   
   > Your Name  wrote:   
   >   
   > [cars vs horses as road hazards]   
   >>   
   >> Maybe not, but a driver can be spooked and lose control of the car.   
   >> Plus a car usually weighs quite a bit more and goes faster ...   
   >> therefore causing more damage.   
   >   
   > ...   
   >   
   >>> It's also quite rare these days to see a wheel come off.   
   >>   
   >> Rare, but not impossible - especially if whoever changed the tyre   
   >> didn't tighten the nuts properly.   
   >   
   > I've seen it.  I was on a major arterial roadway going perhaps 80 KhH   
   > (50 MPH) when I noticed brake lights and confusion ahead of me.  A   
   > moment later, I saw a truck wheel bouncing towards me, but by the time   
   > it reached me it was on the shoulder and heading off the roadway   
   > towards a "noise wall".  I don't know how solidly those noise walls   
   > are built, and I was well past before it hit.  It seems to have   
   > crossed fairly busy oncoming traffic at highway speed without hitting   
   > anyone.  I never saw the vehicle that it came from.   
   >   
   > A car I bought in 1979 had not had the pin placed properly in the   
   > "crown nut" that holds the front wheel on.  Since it was a cheap car,   
   > I lived with lousy handling that seemed to be inherent in buying a car   
   > for $400.  Eventually the nut slacked off to the point where a brake   
   > pad fell out, and I fixed the problem before anything major happened.   
   >   
   > One of my mother's favorite expressions when a conversation was   
   > getting more technical than she could follow was "I had a red one, but   
   > a wheel fell of."  After this case and a similar problem in 1976, she   
   > stopped using that phrase.   
   >   
   >> You do quite often see bits of   
   >> shreaded truck tyres along the side of the motorway too.   
   >   
   > If you've got dual wheels, it is often easier to drive with one of   
   > them flat to a place where you can get the tires changed than to do   
   > anything at the side of the road.  This generally results in the   
   > complete destruction of the already-dead tire.   
   >   
      
   I understand with those really large, multi-wheeled trucks that it is   
   quite difficult to tell whether a single tyre has blown.   
      
   --   
   Robert Bannister - 1940-71 SE England   
                       1972-now W Australia   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)