Watch loose wheel launch a Kia Soul into the air on L.A. freeway

You likely keep a close eye on other traffic during your morning commute, watching for distracted drivers and slower vehicles in your way. Even so, you probably don’t spend too much time thinking about stray tires rolling down the highway, but that’s the situation one Los Angeles-area Kia Soul driver recently faced. A nearby Chevrolet Silverado experienced a wheel failure, causing the Kia to run into the rolling terror, which launched the car into the air in a horrific accident. It was all caught on a Tesla dashcam, and the footage has gone viral online.

The truck appeared to have been using wheel spacers (devices used to widen the stance of a vehicle), and it lost its front driver-side wheel. The component then rolled directly in front of the Kia.

Witnessed and recorded the most INSANE car crash yesterday, you can see Autopilot also swerve and avoid the rouge tire for me $TSLA pic.twitter.com/csMh2nbRNX

— Anoop (@Anoop_Khatra)
March 25, 2023

That driver had no time to react and hit the wheel head-on, sending the crossover flying in a scene that looks unbelievable to have happened in real life. The Soul soared several feet into the air before landing on its hood and rolling over to a stop on its wheels.

It’s unclear how high the Kia flew or how the tire launched it so violently, but the vehicle soared higher than the attacking Silverado’s roof, so it could be up to 10 feet or more in the air. As for why it launched so high, we’re no physicists here, but the tire’s rotational direction could have acted like a ramp under the Kia’s bumper or front axle, which at highway speeds would have some severe consequences.

The video, taken by Twitter user @Anoop_Khatra, began circulating over the weekend. While it’s horrific, the original poster said the Kia driver was able to walk away from the accident unharmed. There’s no word on what happened to the Silverado driver or if they’ll be held responsible for the accident, but the accident is a good reminder not to cheap out on modifications.

This sort of thing is shocking to watch and would be absolutely traumatizing to endure first-hand, but tire- and wheel-related accidents are common enough to have their own sub-Reddit. The r/tiresaretheenemy sub features dozens of funny videos, but in between the humor, there are some terrifying accidents. Semi-truck tires also cause accidents and are apparently common enough that a Google search on the topic returns pages of car-crash attorneys waiting to take the case.