Improperly tightened lug nuts are suspected in a fatal Colorado accident where a tire came off a tractor-trailer and killed a man
standing next to an interstate connector ramp.
According to published reports, the victim had been in a minor accident on the ramp connecting southbound Interstate 270 with eastbound I-70 in Denver and had pulled off to the side. He was talking to a police officer when the wheel hit the man and killed him.
The wheel was one of two that came off a Graebel Van Lines moving truck headed south on I-270, according to The Denver Post. The driver didn't realize it until another trucker flagged him down.
Allen Powers, Graebel senior vice president for safety, told the Post that the probable culprit was lug nuts not properly tightened after a safety inspection at Arvada Diesel in Denver. "I don't think there is anything we could have done to prevent it," Powers told the paper. "This is an extremely unusual situation."