A TikTok prank is a possible cause for a wheel coming off a vehicle in transit
In the “Lug Nut Challenge”, TikTok users film themselves loosening or removing lug nuts from vehicles. A family, whose wheel separated from their vehicle during a transit, suspects this challenge as the culprit. It could have been worse. Had the tire held out longer, it could have came off during their highway transit.
From Fox News:
“Lug nuts do not shake themselves loose and fall off all at the same time without warning,” he said. “It appeared that someone removed four of the five lug nuts and the last one held on for a while and finally broke off.”
The couple said family friends tipped them off to the incident perhaps being part of the dangerous trend on TikTok, explaining they had never heard of the “Lug Nut Challenge” before.
“I’m thankful that no one was hurt, but parents and people need to be aware of this — it’s insane,” Joe Casaliggi said.
“Someone could get seriously hurt or killed,” Michele Casaliggi said.
Joe Casaliggi also went to the police to report the incident, but was told it was only considered theft of property due to the four missing lug nuts, not reckless endangerment.
District Attorney Michael E. McMahon tweeted about it on Wednesday, calling it “really dumb” behavior for people to participate in such a challenge.
“Thankful the Casaliggi family was not hurt in this incident, and that we have not received widespread reports of the ‘lug nut challenge’ across the Island. This is really dumb, dangerous, and mean behavior,” McMahon tweeted.
Fox News has more on the story here.
Category: "Teh Stoopid"
Deadly force?
It’s like I said last time, pure evil genius on China to get people to commit violent felonies in the US by turning it into a game.
Once again proving the daily vehicle walk around my father instructed me to do since I was a child makes good sense to this very day….
His philosophy as a trucker before power steering and automatic transmissions was simple, the walkaround check provides the safest starting point we can get. Tires, lugs, visible damage, start the vehicle, check gauges for pressures, make sure engine idles correctly at proper RPM, etc…then and only then do you start that vehicle in motion…
I’m in my 60s and I can still hear his voice in the back of my head….”Did you check those tires?” “When was the last time you checked your oil?”
That said this kind of idiotic social media nonsense will get someone seriously injured eventually. Either by a homeowner catching them damaging the vehicle and reacting violently or someone getting killed when the wheel comes off and those involved being jailed for their crime.
Morons.
I liked it better when these idiots were eating tide pods and inhaling flour at least they only injured their own dumbasses and no one else.
Spot on VOV…same here. One of the main reasons many operators of Fleet Vehicles require the driver to place chocks and cones front and rear is to make the driver do a walk around. Quickest way to get written up/or fired by Ma Bell was to NOT do one.
F’ing around my vehicle is a good way to put yourself in a “reckless endangerment” situation. IMO a tire tool/lug wrench is a deadly weapon. I would be in fear of my life; I will cooperate with a statement; I want my lawer.
Make sure you give that statement AFTER your lawer(sic) arrives….
Follow the police’s actions when it comes to a shooting.
They don’t say shit.
The first call they make is to their union delegate to get legal representation, the second call is to their spouse.
As that is what the police do after a “legal” shooting, it seems wise for us mere citizens to do the same.
After all we don’t have the luxury of investigating ourselves and clearing ourselves of any wrongdoing.
My dad was career Air Force, I wasn’t allowed to operate a motor vehicle, lawnmower, weedwacker, chainsaw, anything with an engine without a proper “preflight check”. And if I was traveling any long distance, I didn’t leave the house without filing a “flight plan” and closing it on arrival. Seemed silly at the time. Now my son thinks it’s silly. He’ll learn.
When “you” choose to participate in these challenges it is a personal choice. How do “you” justify touching some else’s property?, and what make this a challenge?
If I caught you on my yard with hand on the vehicle the ass whoopin would be cosmic, since no one knows you are there. How low can you go does not need to be acceptable as a challenge to be stupid. What you do in your body, your choice is one thing, sabotaging another’s property is out of the realm of good idea.
Theft of property ?
I can’t believe that it isn’t something like reckless endangerment and a felony.
The dumfuk could have killed that entire family not to mention another one when the wheel came off and the car swerved into the oncoming traffic.
No doubt little Johnny or Susie was another favorite super special child that received participation trophies all of their childhood.
It should be a felony and they should do a year in jail and then a couple years picking up litter in the orange fashion clothes furnished along with three baloney sandwiches a day…
Given that the Tiktok ‘challenges’ have caused felonious vandalism, assaults on teachers, and this: how is it no one has suggested shutting them down?
Just like in Tampa some years ago when some teenagers thought it would be cool and fun to steal a stop sign, there was a fatal accident at that intersection a few hours later and they were charged and convicted of manslaughter, the punks doing that need to be held accountable for their actions!
Next is do a film with Alex Balwin challange.
A ‘challenge’ with tragic consequences
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/baldwin-death-prop-gun-1.6220681
Need more gun control.
Going nuts reading this post. Will check my tires before I leave for the Doc this morning.
If I catch some little fuzz-nutted dipshit with a lug wrench anywhere my vehicle, it’s gonna take a platoon of doctors to pull that wrench out of his ass. And my story will be “he fell on it”.
New York Law:
Sec. 120.25
Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree
§ 120.25 Reckless endangerment in the first degree. A person is guilty of reckless endangerment in the first degree when, under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person. Reckless endangerment in the first degree is a class D felony.
§ 120.20 Reckless endangerment in the second degree.
A person is guilty of reckless endangerment in the second degree when
he recklessly engages in conduct which creates a substantial risk of
serious physical injury to another person.
Reckless endangerment in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.
Hard to see how stealing 4 lug nuts and cutting the 5th doesn’t endanger the lives of people in the car and those around them on the streets as their vehicle heads down the road.
Now if the lugs nut had come off and crashed into a bunch of BLM protesters illegally blocking roads, the owner of the vehicle would have been prosecuted, of course.
Not to be technical, but the fifth lug stud broke off because of the stress of it being the only one holding the wheel in position. It is possible for the lug nuts to work themselves off if not torqued down correctly. I had some work done on my pickup’s front suspension. The shop owner forgot to torque down the lugnuts on a front wheel. A day or two later, I notice the steering was behaving strangely. On checking the front wheels, I found two lugnuts missing and four very loose. The wheel and tire were both damaged from the wheel wobbling on the studs. The shop owner had to buy me a new mag wheel and tire. Now, after I have work done which requires wheel removal, I check the torque on the subject lugs with my torque wrench. Mechanics often use the air wrench to install the lugs without checking with a torque wrench. Frequently the torque reading if off by about 20 foot pounds. When I remove a wheel to rotate or have a tire repaired, I always use my torque wrench to insure I have the correct torque on the lugnuts.
Failure to have correct torque on a nut on a stud can have disastrous consequences. On an aviation case I handled, loss of torque on cylinder stud nuts caused an inflight aircraft engine failure.
“Mechanics often use the air wrench to install the lugs without checking with a torque wrench. Frequently the torque reading if off by about 20 foot pounds.”
Yes and no. Most shops use torque sticks that use material deformation in the elastic range to air hammer to spec. These things are supposed to be checked routinely by a shop foreman to ensure they’re within spec. As a percentage 20 lbs-ft may still be kosher. But I 100% AGREE, the best course of action would be to double check, at least on a spot basis, with a torque wrench.
The things I’ve seen in the automotive world….
I know a 100 ft.lbs torque versus the 120 specified in the owners’ manual is not likely to make a wheel fall off as in the incident above. But over time, if the torque is not correct on all five or six lugnuts, it is possible for them to loosen over time, especially on rough roads. In the incident I had, I think the mechanic intended to torque after the wheel was installed but forgot. Anyway, that is what he admitted to me along with his excuse that he was going through some personal problems that caused him to be distracted. Since the wheel didn’t come completely off, the rim and irregular wear on the tire was the only damage.
In my aviation case, the loss of torque on a cylinder caused it to blow off in flight. The culprit was use of a sealant on a mating surface that wasn’t supposed to be used there. When engine heat made the sealant contract, the torque was lost and the nuts vibrated off several of the studs. Serious injuries and brain damage resulted from the crash landing. The result was a jury trial and a 15 million dollar judgment.
Understand the technical point. The reason I said cut was this from the article:
Joe Casaliggi later found that four lug nuts were missing and a fifth bolt was cut off.
The next line in the article does say the fifth lug was just left on, but the contradiction is in the article. 🙂
As for lug nuts and cars….
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nekA09iI-w&w=640&h=360%5D
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjbAv9gIgkQ&w=640&h=360%5D
Thanks for the link. Great video by a very skilled, conscientious vehicle mechanic. I always wondered what was involved in putting in new ball joints.
You’d best pray the lawman catches you, touch my vehicle(s) and I break your hand(s).
No problem – some dumb-ass POS wants to come and tamper with our car for their idiotic lug-nut challenge, I don’t sleep near as deeply as I used to and I’ve got a great ‘ol slingshot with more than a few stainless bearings, at the ready. Swift. Silent. And ouch… As for my much-loved crossbow – that’s only for ‘special’ take-downs, er I mean occasions. 😀