The California Highway Patrol responded to this freak collision Tuesday on Interstate 10 in Southern California’s San Gorgonio Pass. This is one where you need to see the photos to believe it.
The crash happened in the late afternoon, near the Morongo Indian Reservation, sending two people in the Subaru to the hospital with major injuries.
In a failure that’s still being investigated, a tractor-trailer traveling eastbound apparently lost a pair of wheels that had come detached from the axle. Those wheels continued traveling east on the freeway.
The pair of wheels had enough speed to bounce over the center and slammed the top of a Subaru Forester that was traveling west. The CHP said it will conduct an investigation into why the axle failed.
The CHP’s Facebook post made no mention of how fast the vehicles were traveling, but one could only imagine the forces involved. The Subaru’s passengers are both expected to survive. This shows that it pays to be aware of your surroundings while driving. You never know what could happen.
DISCUSSION
Braking wouldn’t have made much of a difference and by the looks of the background they are in a construction zone with heavy traffic.
They likely wouldn’t have been able to maneuver out of the way.