The driver of a BMW that was travelling along a highway near Vaughan Friday morning is lucky to be alive after a wheel broke off from a passenger car and smashed into his windshield.
Khosrow Barati told CTV News Toronto that he was on his way to pick up his son at Pearson International Airport just after 7 a.m. when the incident happened. He was driving on Highway 409, near Highway 27, when a wheel came bouncing over the barrier and crashed into his windshield.
“The tire could kill me. It happened in less than a second. I couldn’t think,” said Barati. “One second I saw a tire flying from the air and hit the front glass of the car. I just pushed the brake and stopped the car. I was lucky.”
Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said it is really dangerous when wheels fly off without warning.
“It really comes down to a bouncing wheel closing on a vehicle sometimes up to 200 km/h, closing speed, the drivers aren’t expecting it and there is really no chance to react or to avoid a collision,” he said.
Schmidt warned that it is up to every driver to maintain their own vehicle.
“The last time the vehicle had the wheels taken off was when they had their winter tires replaced with summer tires. That was sometime in April—don’t know if that was an improper installation,” Schmidt said.
The driver of the passenger car has been charged with detached parts from a motor vehicle under the Highway Traffic Act.
