WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS
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• It's not much, but it's a start. It must be good news that the Department of Transport is finally prepared to spend some of its resources on preventing wheels coming off commercial vehicles (see story, page 6).
Admittedly the Dip's response to the lost wheel mystery stops well short of providing sufficient funds to finally find out why wheels part company with well-maintained trucks — but at least it has acknowledged that the problem exists. Meanwhile some manufacturers, judging by recent conversations with CM, refute that the lost wheels mystery exists: they see it as a simple case of poor maintenance. In the immortal words of Mandy Rice Davies, they would say that wouldn't they? In a world where product liability has become a white-hot potato no manufacturer in its right mind would acknowledge the existence of a potentially lethal defect. So, apart from the operators it affects and Commercial Motor, who exactly does accept that there is a problem? For a start there is the Institute of Road Transport Engineers. It's now well over seven years since the IRTE launched its dogged campaign for properly funded research into the problem. If any group deserves the recognition for bringing the lost wheel mystery into the open it must surely be the IRTE. Then there's the BSI's tyres and wheels technical committee which has commissioned an independent engineering expert to put together the first British Standard for wheel fixings, and to modify the existing standard for wheels. As far as Commercial Motor is concerned, when people like the IRTE and BSI say there's a problem then it's time to do something about it. That's why just over a year ago we set up our own Lost Wheels Campaign to raise money for further research into those aspects of the problem not covered by the original study carried out by the Motor Industry Research Association on behalf of the IRTE. Next week we'll be bringing you some important news on the progress of that campaign. As this week's news story shows, wheel loss can have tragic consequences. It's eight years since the IRTE said: 'What is paramount is to discover the engineering truth." Let's hope that no more people will have to die because of our ignorance.