Police are encouraging the public to check their vehicles after a video published online shows a recently installed snow tire coming off a moving SUV and rolling across an Ontario highway.
The video, posted on YouTube by user Mini Cooper Dashcam, shows the tire crossing Highway 407 in front of a GO Transit bus before hopping over the median into a ditch.
OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the incident occurred in the westbound lanes of the highway near Airport Road in Mississauga on Saturday at around 8:30 a.m. He said the tires were put on the vehicle not too long ago.
Schmidt said the investigation is ongoing and no charges have been laid. He added the only specific charge for wheel detachments is for commercial vehicles.
READ MORE: Driver charged after wheels come off truck on Highway 401 near Ingersoll, Ont.: OPP
Although Schmidt said no one was injured, the potential for harm is very real.
“It is dangerous, it can be deadly and it happens more than you think,” he said, adding the OPP investigated around 140 wheel separation reports in 2015. Schmidt estimated many more incidents go unreported.
He encouraged drivers to take their vehicles out at a slower speed after tire changes and to use a tire iron to double check the lug nuts.
“It just takes a little bit of settling with those wheels and all of sudden we have a wheel come off,” Schmidt said.
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