Motorists kept their cool yesterday after a breakaway wheel from a tow truck sailed across seven lanes of Hwy 401 and slammed into two cars before it whizzed past an OPP officer standing by his cruiser.

The drivers of the damaged vehicles were not hurt.

The wheel bounced 2 km along the highway.

The incident was one of several bizarre cases during this week's Focus 2000 blitz on bad drivers, which included a man being charged yesterday with driving 169 km/h in a 100 km/h zone while hanging his head out the window to dry his hair because he was late for work; and a pickup driver who tossed unwanted french fries in front of a police cruiser.

Const. Julia McCuaig said a wheel broke off an eastbound tow-truck near Brock Rd. It bounced into the westbound lanes at about 100 km/h, hit two vehicles and kept going. It was found near Church St. –2 km away.

A woman whose car was struck “held on tight after it hit, then saw the tire bouncing behind her through her rearview mirror," McCuaig said.

Const. Greg Clee had just pulled over a driver for questioning when Kevin Hann, assistant city editor at The Toronto Sun, saw the wheel "pass behind the police car, then bounce past the front of my truck." "I'm still shaking," Hann said 45 minutes later. "Something like this can happen so fast."

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