Lucky breakdown

The truck passed me, then roared on past the truck in front of me. As it moved slowly past him, I noticed his wheels weren't on straight.

Literally.

Well, not all of them, anyway, the right rear set of trailer wheels were slanted inward, as if the axle behind were broken. And I could see sparks on the road, as if some metal thing were grinding itself down against the asphalt.

I'd gotten that far, and was cursing my lack of a CB to warn him with,* when the whole thing came off,

Two big truck wheels, still attached to their foot-deep brake drum, careening across the shoulder, bounding across the drainage ditch and up the embankment, going though a woven fence like it wasn't there, and tearing through somebody's field--leaving a rooster-tail of cornstalks for a good fifty yards before it slowed down.

Somebody's gonna be ticked off next time he plows.

On the other hand, we all got off easy, believe it or not. It could have been on the left side.

Careening across two lanes of traffic.

Bounding across the median and careening across three lanes of ONCOMING traffic.

And if it'd hit somebody, we're not talking a piece of retread. That's two complete tractor trailer tires, their wheel assemblies, and the brake drum they were bolted to. Several hundred pounds, I suspect--moving at 60+ mph, and quite possibly hitting a car going just as fast the other way.

Oh, boy.

As it was, both I and the fellow he was passing had seen it coming and slowed down plenty. The trailer in question got off the road in good order--the other set of wheels on that side were still there, and held the weight that long.

And I went on about my business.

I watched my wheels a lot in the mirror, though..

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*One of the few times I've missed it.