I've just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point."

Seems like this is another instance of a meme that demonstrates the incredible level of suggestibility that is in all of us. Examples in the book included the increase of suicidal behavior in teens after an initial "trigger" event (done by someone notable, followed by big media exposure), school shootings after Columbine, hysteria in schools, etc. Guess we can add UFO sightings and kidnappings, etc. etc. etc.

I have to wonder about this.

Supposedly these dings are on all windshields, and nobody ever noticed them before?

I've read this story, and this explanation of it, before now, and I've gone out looking for such things on my windshield. Couldn't find any.

Something similar to this happened in the Toronto area a couple of years back.

It seems that when wheels are mounted on tractor-trailers using the usual pneumatic wrenches, sometimes too much force is applied and the studs crack. Once every few months, a high-traffic area (like Toronto) will see a tractor-trailer lose a wheel as a result. Once in a blue moon that wheel will hit another vehicle.

It happened one day that a motorist was killed when a wheel smashed through his windshield. The incident was odd enough and horrific enough that the news media reported it and re-reported it for days.

Then they polled their audience for opinions on it, and re-reported THAT for days.

Then they launched investigations of any similar incidents they could find (no other deaths surfaced, though) and re-reported THAT for days.

Then they interviewed everyone they could find concerning this "menace" and re-reported THAT for days.

After about a month of this, the public was sure that dozens of people had been slaughtered by flying truck wheels, and were screaming about the carnage that surely exceeded that of anything even seen on Canadian roads before. Police roadblocks were set up to stop tractor-trailers and inspect their wheels, governments formed committees and spent budgets, new proposals were written into law, and people started staying home for fear of being the next victim.

Then some real news came along and everybody forgot about the flying truck wheels. As far as I know, one still comes loose every few months or so. But now that's not an issue because, well, it's not an Issue.

Meriadoc:

I suspect that windshields were not as well-made in 1954 as they are now, so they may have had more irregular surfaces from the get-go than today.

Another possiblity that occurs to me is that fifty years ago, probably not so many people carried no-deductible glass coverage on their auto insurance policies as do now, so windshield replacements and/or repairs weren't as frequently done, leading to the average windshield being a little more beat up than the average one today.

The flying truck wheel problem around Toronto really shouldn't be placed in this category. You make it sound like it was an isolated incident; in fact there were an incredible numbers of incidents and these are dangerous, especially on busy highways like the 401. For instance, in 1997, from Jan to mid-June alone, there were 40 truck wheels flying off, and 6 accidents as a result. By July the number was over 50, and the previous year there had been 19 people injured and 24 vehicles damaged. In 1996 a mother and daughter were killed in one of these incidents; in 1995 2 women were killed in separate incidents. This was not some sort of hysteria or mass delusion; it was and is a serious problem which needs to be taken care of. It started when inspections were left in the hands of trucking companies, and many of them saved money by not doing the job adequately. Spot road inspections have done a lot to keep dangerous trucks off the roads; pretending that having them is some sort of overreaction to an isolated incident is either uninformed or disingenuous.

Red Headed Ba*d, I don't believe you because Michael Moore told me Canadian news doesn't do things like that.

Chaz: Maybe. But in that case the pitting problem would be least on new cars. Was that noted in the Seattle epidemic?

QrazyQat, were flying truck wheels a problem elsewhere in Canada, or only in Toronto?

Edited by author 04-16-2003 09:19 PM
I'm only familiar with the situation in Toronto, because I was living there at the time it started (after the trucking companies were first put in charge of policing their maintenence). I wouldn't be surprised to find similar probs elsewhere, but also wouldn't be surprised if TO had more than other places. The reasons, some rough highways and lots and lots of big trucks moving at high speeds on these crowded roads with lots of cars. Almost all of the heavy truck traffic around TO is on the same roads as most of the car traffic, unlike many other cities I've seen, where it tends to be a bit more separate. Also, around Canada, TO and the surrounding areas have far more people than any other city. (TO 4.4 mill, Montreal about 3 mill, and Vancouver in 3rd with 1.8 mil). And the area from TO down to Niagara Falls has something like one fifth of Canada's total population, so it's more crowded by a lot. So most of the industry, most of the trucking, most of the population, and a lot of older high speed roads would probably make it the worst spot for this type of action. The spot inspections they started doing again are apparently helping.