May 7, 2009 9:48 AM

The Tire Industry Association (TIA) and Michelin Americas Truck Tires (MATT) have partnered to create a new training video for truck fleets. The 20-minute video titled Wheel End Safety is intended to provide maintenance personnel and drivers with installation and inspection guidelines to improve wheel-end performance and safety. It addresses a number of related topics, but the primary focus is to help fleets prevent wheel-off accidents and wheel-end fires.

This video is available as a free download by accessing www.tireindustry.org or www.michelintruck.com.

In order to illustrate the danger of a wheel-off incident, TIA worked with Michelin engineers to construct a controlled test at Michelin’s Laurens Proving Grounds in South Carolina, where the tire and wheel assemblies could be filmed after they separated from a trailer. After several successful attempts, a parked car was placed in the path so multiple cameras could record the footage. The resulting impact is designed to grab the attention of viewers and demonstrate the seriousness of wheel-off accidents.