Truck Accident

Fatal Accidents Involving Truck-Wheel Separations

In October 1991, the National Transportation Safety Board investigated a fatal accident in which a two-axle cargo van truck lost a front wheel, which rolled into the path of an oncoming schoolbus carrying 46 fourth-graders and their chaperons. The 365-pound wheel smashed through the bus windshield and entered the passenger compartment, killing two children and a chaperon. In the 3 weeks following this accident, two more fatal accidents involving truck-wheel separations occurred in North Carolina; in each instance, a left wheel came off a medium/heavy truck and struck an oncoming pickup, killing the driver.

These three similar accidents, which resulted in five fatalities. Generated public and Congressional concern about the potential magnitude of the truck-wheel separation problem. To address these concerns, the Safety Board initiated a special investigation in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Motor Carriers (OMC) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to study the incidence of truck-wheel separations and determine what could be done to correct the problem.

Between November 1991 and February 1992, Safety Board investigators conducted in-depth examinations of the fatal wheel-separation accidents that occurred in fall 1991, and investigators assessed numerous accident and inspection sources in support of this special investigation. Preliminary analysis indicated that most existing databases did not distinguish between wheel-separation and tire-failure accidents. Investigators surveyed the six States that do maintain separate accident data on wheel defects; the Safety Board also interviewed truck carriers, manufacturers, engineers, and mechanics to obtain information for this special' investigation.