Watch: Pickup Truck Tyre Comes Off, Makes Kia Car Flip Mid-air In US Highway Crash

Road speeds in India are increasing with the advent of new highways and superhighways throughout the country. However, handling these speeds is another ballgame which brings new challenges and requires you to acquire new driving skills. But even with all the skills in the world, accidents can happen; and that’s what we see in this video from a California freeway in which a Kia hatchback is flung into the air by a rogue pickup truck tyre. 

Witnessed and recorded the most INSANE car crash yesterday, you can see Autopilot also swerve and avoid the rouge tire for me $TSLA pic.twitter.com/csMh2nbRNX

— Anoop (@Anoop_Khatra) March 25, 2023

What caused this crash? 

In the video, the Kia Soul can be seen making a legal overtaking maneuver. But right at the moment where it’s about to pass the silver pickup truck (which seems to be a Chevrolet Silverado), the truck’s tyre comes off, jumping squarely in the middle of the Kia’s lane. This Final Destination-like scene gives the Kia driver zero reaction time, and the hatchback goes right over the massive truck wheel, which causes it to jump several feet into the air, do a flip and land on its roof on the highway. 

The moment when the truck tyre lands in the Kia's path

Meanwhile, the truck driver steers the three-wheeled pickup away from the Soul, avoiding a secondary impact, and onto the hard shoulder – the right way to respond to an accident. According to the person who filmed the entire accident on his Tesla’s dash cam, the truck driver had parked on the shoulder and came back to check on the Kia driver in good faith. Fortunately, no one was hurt or seriously injured in this accident. 

With multiple vehicles sharing the road, moving at 120-140kmph, this accident could have turned out a lot worse if it hadn’t been for the vigilance and timely reaction of other drivers on the freeway at that time. 

How can such crashes be prevented? 

Modifications require careful installation and maintenance

It’s clear from the video that the pickup truck that caused this crash is lifted and has a wide stance. The police haven’t released an official statement on the cause of this accident, but we reckon that improperly installed wheel spacers might have caused the truck wheel to come off. 

Here's what could've gone wrong – if the spacer isn’t tightly secured to the hub, it can cause the wheel lug threads to gradually shear away, and once the lug nuts can no longer hold it in place, the wheel simply slides off its lugs. To prevent this, it's important to use high-quality spacers and all the nuts and bolts must be tightened correctly using a torque wrench. 

Car stanced with wheel spacers

In addition, spacers have been known to cause issues such as wheel bearing failure, which in extreme cases can result in the hub detaching from its axle, causing the wheel to come off. It's possible to avoid using spacers altogether by choosing wheels that have the correct offset for your vehicle's suspension setup.   

Simply put, it’s impossible to even imagine that the Kia could have somehow avoided this accident. In accidents such as this one, the car’s structural rigidity plays an important role in the outcome for its passengers. Airbags can prevent injuries, but only if the car’s safety cell (the passenger compartment) is adequately strong. 

• Facelifted Kia Seltos 2023 Spotted In GT Line Guise, Likely To Get ADAS Suite

• RTO Document Suggests Base-spec AX Trim Could Return For 4WD Mahindra Thar

That said, this incident does highlight the importance of driver-assistance features as well. The poster’s Tesla, equipped with some of the most advanced ADAS features, does well to prevent crashing into the Kia Soul and even swerves to avoid the rogue tyre flying in its direction. ADAS in select cars such as Teslas can maintain a 360-degree view at all times, watching out for hazards that the driver may not have noticed.