[fred cook]

Took my wife to a doctor's appointment yesterday (Wednesday) in downtown Atlanta. Afterwards as we were headed south on I75 just below Atlanta, traffic was heavy as usual, but moving along at about 70. So here's the situation: There was a white Honda Civic in the left lane one car length ahead of us (I was driving in the next to left lane) with a black hot hatch beside him just in front of my F150. All of a sudden, the left rear wheel/tire came off the black car and when the now wheel-less corner hit the ground the dragging corner turned the hatch sideways in front of my truck but moving towards the white Honda. The Honda driver managed to slow some and dove for the emergency lane and the black hatch wound up sideways in the left lane. AND, while all this was going on, the now loose wheel/tire was rolling and bouncing down the highway just in front of my truck! The tire was zigging from side to side like a well controlled hockey puck and I was having a difficult time deciding which way to move to avoid hitting the tire. It (the tire) finally decided to go left, I went a bit to the right and managed to avoid being involved. Also while all this was going on, I had one foot on the brakes and one eye in the rear view mirror to make sure that no one was about to swallow up the back end of the truck! I've owned this truck about 2 years and this was the first time the anti-lock brakes were activated! The last thing I saw in the rear view mirror as we rounded the next corner was all the traffic behind us coming to an abrupt stop! All this happened about 4:00pm so if you were caught up in the traffic jam now you know what caused it!