Beryl Johnson looks through the broken window caused by a wayward truck wheel slamming into her house. Photo/John Stone
Beryl Johnson looks through the broken window caused by a wayward truck wheel slamming into her house. Photo/John Stone
Ōtaika woman Beryl Johnson has had a rude awakening like no other.
The 72-year-old, who lives on State Highway 1, said she was asleep at 6.30am yesterday when she was woken by "an almighty bang".
"I thought maybe it was an earthquake. I went out, looked around the other part of the house and couldn't see anything, which puzzled me, then I came around here and saw the damage to the wall."
Lying on the lawn was a truck wheel, which moments earlier had come hurtling from State Highway 1, bounced over the roadside fence and then a drain, just clipped a fence near Johnson's house before cannoning into the side of her house more than a metre off the ground.
It smashed the window and the outside weatherboards on the house and pushed the match lining inwards, ripping the wallpaper inside and knocking over a book case, a wool carding machine and a sewing machine.
"Everything is down on the floor, there's books everywhere."
Johnson said the house is around 150 years old.
A wheel which found its way on to Beryl Johnson's property a bit over a year ago. Photo/John Stone
There was no damage to the roadside fence, which made it hard to know exactly where the wheel had started its run from, but lining the damage to the house up with the small piece of broken fence near the house, she and her brother said the wheel could have travelled up to 100 metres from the road.
Johnson said no trucks stopped so she thought it might be one wheel from a dual wheeled trailer. She thought the driver would notice their missing wheel when they reached their destination.
"It makes you scared, out there working in the garden, that could have killed somebody."
Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett said a wheel loss like this is a concerning incident and he understands why people would be nervous after hearing about it.
"It's a good reminder to all drivers that they should regularly check and inspect wheel nut tension."
He said it would be a very rare occasion for this to happen with modern technology and servicing practices.
"It would be impossible to say what caused this to occur without seeing the vehicle. Given the rareness of this and depending on the cause, it is hard to say whether you would expect a driver to detect wheel loss at the time."
For Johnson, it's not for the first time she's had a wayward wheel come crashing on to her property.
A wheel which found its way on to Beryl Johnson's property a bit over a year ago. Photo/John Stone
Just over a year ago, a wheel again came across a paddock and a drain and smashed parts of her peach tree.
"I didn't hear it, I just found it. I wondered why the electric fence was shorting out."
Johnson, who has lived in the house her whole life, said she has found three or four other vehicle wheels landed in her paddocks over the years.
