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Wheel detachment from vehicles, particularly heavy commercial vehicles, continues to be a major cause of concern for operators and is widely recognised as a global issue.
When a wheel becomes detached from a moving commercial vehicle, it has the potential to accelerate to speeds of up to 150 km/h. This has been likened by academics to a bouncing bomb, reaching a height of up to 50 metres before potentially colliding with other vehicles or road users at an equivalent force of around 10 tonnes.
The result of such an incident carries multiple risks for the vehicle operator, including but not limited to:
But how often do such incidents occur? In 2006 the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) report into wheel loss on commercial vehicles, published for the Department for Transport (DfT), estimated that the typical annual frequency of wheel fixing problems in the UK alone stands at:
There has been considerable research and investigative work on this subject over many years, and despite efforts to raise awareness of this issue – and the countless mechanical devices on the market – wheel detachment has remained a problem.