What do you do if the engine light comes on in your car?
Most people go straight to the shop: they know that the car’s telling them that something’s really wrong. You can probably drive that far, but you really shouldn’t plan a road trip without getting it checked out.
Cars are pretty good at telling us what’s wrong with them these days, but there are still a lot of systems we take totally for granted. As far as I know, there’s no sensor in the lug nuts that hold the wheels on, for example. They just work. (They’re also quintuply redundant.)
So consider this: you’ve already decided to ignore the engine light, and you’re cruising down the highway. You’re probably over the speed limit for good measure (who isn’t?).
One or two lug nuts come off. Maybe you notice, maybe you don’t. Either way, there are four more on each wheel.
And then, for some reason, those come off, too. Hard to believe, but it happened. And now you’re doing 80 with nothing actually holding the wheels on.
What would you do then?
Colin Steele 