A Quebec man faces two charges after a wheel from his transport truck rolled across eight lanes of traffic and hit two minivans on the 401 near Avenue Rd. this afternoon.

Kalsana Bakhsish Singh, 42 and of Lasalle, Quebec, is charged with a front wheel hub detaching from a commercial motor vehicle and operating an unsafe commercial motor vehicle.

The incident happened just before 2 p.m., when the truck lost one wheel from the front left side. After spinning through multiple lanes, the wheel hit a Pontiac Montana minivan travelling east and then careened into a second minivan.

The driver of the Pontiac was a 70-year-old male from Toronto. He escaped with only minor injuries, as did the female driver of the other minivan, also from Toronto. The driver of the transport was unhurt, and no one was taken to hospital.

Const. Graham Williamson of the OPP’s highway safety division said there was extensive damage to the front end of both minivans they had to be towed.

“The wheel hit nice and low so the impact was taken by the mass of the vehicle and not in the passenger area,” he said.

After the truck was towed to nearby Ministry of Transportation yards, officers with the OPP’s traffic support unit found several problems, including an air brake out of adjustment. Police removed the truck’s licence plates and put it out of service until repairs are completed.

In September 2006, a 41-year-old mother of three driving to see her daughter at a school event was killed when a transport truck travelling east on Third Line in Oakville lost two rear tires. The tires bounced over a four-foot median, hitting the woman’s Mercedes and killing her instantly.

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