STUNNED pedestrians watched on in horror as a wheel flew off a bus and bounced almost 100 metres down a Kinver road before destroying a garden wall.
The wheel came loose from the 227 Diamond bus on Enville Road but fortunately missed any passers-by before hitting the wall early on Wednesday evening (June 13).
Eyewitness Nigel Tolley Fellow said the wheel would have caused real damage if it had hit anyone and questioned how it had managed to come loose.
Mr Tolley said: “How six nuts can come loose when the wheels are supposed to be tested on a daily basis, I don’t know. It just about sums up Diamond Buses.
“They were twin wheels on the axle so the bus didn’t stop automatically or sit down because there was still a wheel on that axle – but the second wheel was at a 45 degree angle.
“It shows the force the wheel was going at that it easily knocked down the wall. If it had hit someone in the leg, it would have broken their leg. They are heavy things.”
Fellow eyewitness Maxine Whiston added: “I was walking up towards Kinver High and a tyre rolled past me, the bus was behind it.
“The driver looked confused as if to say ‘where did that tyre come from?
“I signalled the driver, pointing out it had come off the back of the bus. He pulled straight into Meddins Lane.
“The tyre continued its journey to just past the vets.
“It could have been awful as there were pedestrians and lots of cars about.”
A spokesperson for Diamond Buses said: “The company is investigating this incident fully with our operations and engineering team.
"We take the safety of the general public extremely seriously and until the investigation into the cause of the incident is complete it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this time.”
