Meanwhile on Interstate 90...

This passed me today on I-90 eastbound at about 75 MPH. No, I'm not kidding. I honked and pointed and the guy just kind of shrugged at me like, "Hey, what can I do about it?"

Look closely, you'll see it...

Some people are SOOOOO oblivious and a danger to others!! Someone here will probably ask which is more dangerous....driving like that guy or taking a photo of that guy while driving....

I've got 3 more, what's the big deal:confused:

Its a Lexus, he probably didn't even feel it.

Where are the sparks?

This passed me today on I-90 eastbound at about 75 MPH. No, I'm not kidding. I honked and pointed and the guy just kind of shrugged at me like, "Hey, what can I do about it?"

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Look closely, you'll see it...

You mean to say it was really a guy driving it that way?

It was probably a stolen car.

I saw and heard the same thing last year, also here in Ohio. I could hear him coming up behind me and pulled onto the shoulder to give him plenty of room. Sparking some, but not near as much as I would have expected. The car that passed me was also doing at least 85. Maybe a fast enough speed helps handling?

Here's the full story: I saw the tire come off, fully intact, somewhere near Mayfield road on I-271. It went rolling down the right lane and bounced onto the shoulder. I didn't see from which car it came until I caught up to this guy and he was rolling on the rim. No sparks, and honestly, not even that much noise. I got next to him and saw it was a mid-30s guy talking casually on his phone. I started honking and waving at him and he ignored me for a while, then looked over like he was annoyed, but not aware of why someone would be honking at him. I pointed and gestured and he started to pull over. I didn't follow him to the shoulder, thinking he'd stop and figure it out, but apparently when he saw that I wasn't stopping he decided not to stop, either (I suspect he figured I wanted to talk or something). Quite honestly, I don't believe he realized what had happened.

So he accelerates back onto the highway and goes roaring past me (this is 5-7 miles after the tire came off), giving me an angry look. I gestured at his right front wheel area again and he shrugged at me and accelerated away. When I took that photo, I was going 70 MPH and he was passing me rather quickly, so he was doing 75-80. I got off at the next exit. He kept going. How far, I don't know, but I suspect that eventually he figured it out when the rim was gone and the spokes started bouncing along the pavement. But no sparks (it's aluminum, which doesn't spark as well as steel) or even much noise. I can't imagine he couldn't feel it, but perhaps a Lexus really is that isolated.

Geez, I dunno. I always thought tires were essential. Maybe this guy's on to something.

And yes, I did call 911. Cell phones aren't just for pictures, you know!

Matt, you did what you obviously had to do. It's scary what is driving these highways. The world is going wacky!

Alloy wheels don't make sparks.

Wow. Just wow.

It isn't surprising a youth driver didn't notice no tire after all that series Lexus uses an electronic stability system and quite frankly those systems appear to work well. But one question is those cars also use a tire sensing system(TPS) so what happened to the warning on that? My wife has one of those model Lexus and they are impressive drivers.

Robert

Geez, I dunno. I always thought tires were essential. Maybe this guy's on to something.

LOL, yeah, stickin' it to the man!

Several years back, my mother-in-law was returning home in her '94 Olds Cutlass, from a bingo game, that she just had to attend, during a Wisconsin snow blizzard. An SUV ran a red light and hit her in the right rear quarter, spinning her into a curb. The SUV ran off leaving her alone in the middle of the road. With absolutely no one around, no cell phone, and the blizzard raging, she decided the safest course of action was to continue heading home, a distance of several more miles. Upon her arrival, she discovered that her left rear wheel and hub were missing. She thought the brakes felt a little different. The next day, at the seen of the crash, I retrieved the missing wheel from atop a snow bank in the median. No, she wasn't drunk!

Since it is one of those new modern tires that is a foot wide and an inch deep, it does not surprise me if the car rides the same with or without it.

Several years ago we were leaving Hershey towing one of our old cars on a secondary highway headed east when we saw another motorhome on a perpendicular road towing a square looking car with a funnel cloud of smoke trailing off the rear wheel. As our two highways interesected, he had a stop sign.

As he stopped in a great cloud of smoke, I could see that the Jeep Cherokee he was towing had only about 2/3 of a wheel left. The tire was gone and the aluminum wheel was in flames. Apparently it was in PARK or had the parkng brake on. He too ignored me and my horns and waves and pulled on to the highway eastbound behind me. No I couldn't get him on his CB either.

I was going to declare "smooth", then thought better of it, since it could not have been.

No worries, it has them new fangled "run flat tires"

Followed a guy driving down 90 at 75mph with about 100 railroad ties on a 5000lb flat bed tandem axel car trailer. The way overloaded trailer had shredded a left side tire that was now on fire! the remaining tire was also burning. He had a brand new 500HP pick up truck, never even noticed, I was unable to get his attention. Wonder if he made it home? (it had lots of sparks!)

Don't even get me going on these 60 foot long campers (mobile homes) they are pulling without a CDL, saw 3 rollovers on 90 last summer.

This tops the young lady I saw driving on 3 tires and one brake drum (hey, it's round, right?) prior to cell phones & camara phones, It was in a section of Hartford where you routinely see interesting things like that...

We were driving up to Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories (the most northern road-accessable community in Canada) March 2012 in my '47 Dodge, when we stopped for gas at at Eagle Plains, population 8. Eagle Plains is over 200 miles in either direction from the nearest community, and was built when the Dempster Highway went through in the late '70s. It is shale gravel in the summer and hard pack snow and ice in winter like when we went through.

Anyway we saw this wheel remnant in the service station and asked what it was all about. Story goes there was an Asian family vacationing through the area a couple summers ago and when they rented a vehicle in Dawson City to the south were warned about the dangers of wild animals in the area and advised to not get out of their vehicle along the highway.

Shale gravel is sharp and hard on tires, and flats are common during summer months. Apparently this family had a flat tire some 100 miles south of Eagle Plains and took to heart the warnings to not exit the vehicle...

These wheels were usually found on 1990's Toyota Land Cruiser's or 4runners and would usually be shod with 31" tires. That's a lot of material to grind down. They were probably on the brake drum by then.

Don't even get me going on these 60 foot long campers (mobile homes) they are pulling without a CDL, saw 3 rollovers on 90 last summer.

A CDL for a travel trailer? Here anything up to 4600 kg (10,000 pounds) only requires an RV endorsement on a normal drivers license. Anything over 4600 kg requires an air brake endorsement - on a normal drivers license. Both are written tests only. No road test is required. This is in a province which is 96% mountains.

Terry