A car swerved into a construction site Friday morning in Racine County, catching fire and killing the driver.
"One witness reported a tire may have come off that vehicle and caused it to swerve and crash into an excavator," said Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling. "The vehicle immediately caught fire."
The exact cause of the crash is still under investigation but Auto Technician Christian Bilgo says a lot of things have to go wrong for a tire to come loose.
"It's got to be pretty loose for that to happen," said Bilgo. "That's why you don't hear about it a lot."
Bilgo has worked at Riverside Automotive for 15 years. He says they always use a torque wrench to ensure lug nuts are on properly.
He says drivers should pay attention to when things don't feel or sound right.
"If a tire's coming loose, the number one thing you'll hear it, it will make knocking noises before it comes out," he said. "It won't feel right, the steering will just feel different."
One or two missing lug nuts is not an immediate cause for concern he said, but he did recommend getting it fixed as soon as possible and not taking the risk.
"There's five lug nuts on there for a reason," he said. "It needs that much strength to hold the wheel on the car."
