Wheels still dropping as IRTE report arises
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• Two hauliers have described this week how wheels inexplicably flew off their trucks at high speed — hours after they claim to have checked them. In both cases the driver involved narrowly escaped serious injury.
Their claims come on the eve of a significant report which will attempt to explain the reasons behind the "great wheel nuts mystery", and why seemingly well-torqued and regularly-maintained wheels can come off without warning. The report, by the Institute of Road Transport Engineers, will stress the importance of following manufacturers' advice on fitting and checking wheels.
Evesham-based grain haulier Patrick Wilkinson is to plead guilty to a charge of not maintaining his vehicle properly when his case comes up at Pentonville Magistrates Court in Newport, Gwent, next week.
Both nearside wheels on his Volvo F7 eight-wheel bulker came off as he was travelling on the M4 to Cardiff. He escaped injury but was badly shaken. One wheel ended up on the central reservation, the other on the inside lane.
Wilkinson's wife Pamela, who also runs the two-vehicle firm, says trucks are checked "religiously" each morning, and scrutinised monthly by a qualified fitter. "Our wheels are torqued up daily along with other checks. It is such a mystery that this could happen," she says.
She points out that wheel studs on both sides of the vehicle were right-hand threaded, but that on some older vehicles nearside studs were threaded left-hand so they did not loosen with the motion of the wheel.
Another operator, Rodney Ogden of Horsham, was given an absolute discharge last week when a court found that a latent defect caused a wheel to come off the nearside front axle of a 12.2-metre trailer.
The vehicle belonged to a subcontractor used by Ogden, and his driver had to be cut free from the wreck.
He spent one night in hospital, and is now threatening to sue Ogden.
The growing incidence of wheels falling off moving trucks is sending shockwaves through the road transport industry. The 1RTE is quick to absolve operators and truck and trailer manufacturers.
"Wheel technology has not advanced at the same pace as speeds and weights," says technical executive Peter Edmonds. "We have been taking a long hard look at the way wheels are made. We are aware their is a problem but we are not blaming manufacturers or operators."