A Few years ago we were driving towards San Diego on Interstate 15 and watched a tire off a trailer roll past us because it had come off the trailer and was going faster than we were in our direction. So, I slowed down so I wouldn't hit it. Luckily, everyone on the freeway was able to avoid contact with the tire and wheel rolling about 70 mph down the freeway. Eventually thankfully it rolled off the freeway and stopped in the side median of the freeway unlike the previous one that hit an oncoming SUV setting off all the airbags so no one died.
So, if a wheel comes off a trailer, truck or car as you are driving down the road and you see it in time try to avoid it like we did and all the vehicles around us luckily were able to also. But, if it's coming at you from the opposite direction it's possible it will be too quick to recognize what it is until it's too late if it jumps the median in the center of the road or freeway. But, if you notice in the video before this the Air bags came out in the SUV so no one was seriously injured which is amazing too!
Why a wheel and tire come off a trailer or car or truck?
Usually, someone doesn't get the lug nuts on tight enough for whatever the reason. For example, if you have never changed a tire before you might not know just how snug they have to be. I usually put at least 50 to 100 pound turning pressure on the lug wrench to make sure the lug nuts are tight enough not to work themselves off again. Also, most lug nuts are beveled to act almost like washers to give the lug nuts more friction to keep them from unwinding when you don't want them to.
But, usually it is someone not very familiar or someone hampered by alcohol or drugs or problems in their life that forgets to tighten the lug nuts properly before driving with them that way.
Once I forgot when I was young to do a final tighten down the lug nuts on a rear wheel on a VW Van I owned and a wheel came off it myself but luckily there were no cars around when this happened and I was able to find enough lug nuts by walking back towards my house to reattach the tire and wheel to the axle and hub until I could buy a couple more lug nuts at an auto parts store. This would have been about 1976 I think. But, this isn't the kind of mistake you make more than once if you are a sensible person. Also, the most common tire and wheel riding down the road all by itself would likely be from a trailer, especially if there are dual wheels so the vehicle or trailer can keep moving. Because once the vehicle collapses as the wheel leaves it tends to trap the wheel under the vehicle unless you are going over 50 miles per hour or more so it has more gyroscopic motion going on from the fast spin. In other words the faster the wheel is going the more likely it will be that it keeps going for 1 block to 1/2 mile or more especially if you are on the level when this happens or going downhill (Downhill could be the worst situation because then it could actually gain speed to an extreme degree. Curves in the road will tend to send the tire in a straight line off the sides of a curve one way or the other too depending upon it's trajectory.
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