An Afternoon of Near Road Mishap

Thank you Lord we are still alive!

A near mishap happened last Sunday when we were coming home to Cotabato City from Davao City. I was with my wife Wendy, her parents, auntie and cousin. We were plying the Kabacan – Pagagawan road when we heard some rumbling noise from our left side and our Estrada pickup just tilted to the left. Papang Wilson (Wendy’s father) immediately brought the pickup to a halt and after scurrying to get out of the vehicle, we saw that the left rear tire came off! I immediately saw it lying besides the left front tire.

Upon closer inspection, we saw that all the six nuts holding the tire in place to the wheel drum had all disappeared! Papang went back a few meters from where we stopped and saw one nut and the cap to the tire. One guy riding a bicycle also approached us bringing with him one nut. Four nuts were still missing and we concluded that they are already lost as the nuts gradually came off from the wheel one by one while we are traveling. Some men living along the road helped us put a jack under the vehicle to balance it and relieve the stress from the left wheel.

We called Papang’s friend from Kabacan and after 40 minutes, they arrived bringing with them a mechanic and new replacement nuts. The tire was fixed in 10 minutes and we set off right away as it was already 4:30 PM and Cotabato City is still around 100 km away.

My conclusion is that the night before, someone must have planned on stealing the tire but was unable to finish the job. They/he must have loosened the nuts but before they/he could take away the tire, someone/something must have prevented them/him from doing so and left in a hurry. If this was not the case, how can six nuts all came off one by one? It might be possible that the nuts are just slightly loose and as we were traveling, started to loosen more until it completely came off from the wheel. That’s plausible maybe for one or two nuts but for the entire six nuts? I don’t think so! By the way, the card was parked a few meters outside Mark’s (Wendy’s brother) apartment since their place doesn’t have a garage.

We are so fortunate that nothing untoward happened to us since Papang drives slowly (no more that 80 km/hour) and managed to immediately bring the pickup to a stop. If we were driving fast, who knows what might have happened!?

 
We were just so thankful to God that He protected us and kept us safe and prevented a major disaster from happening.

Please visit my new web site for more posts.

My Ark Full of Worry-Free Thoughts 3.0