Most police chases end one of a few ways: spike strips, a PIT, a crash, or a driver who finally runs out of nerve. Wednesday afternoon’s pursuit through Chicago’s west suburbs threw in a more mechanical plot twist. Somewhere near Mannheim Road, the fleeing car left one of its wheels behind. The driver kept going anyway.
It didn’t last. The run ended on a residential street in Westchester, where the driver pulled over, got out and was immediately taken into custody by officers, according to NBC Chicago’s aerial footage and report from its Sky 5 helicopter, which tracked the whole thing from overhead.
What’s confirmed, and what isn’t
Here’s the verified outline. On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 23, Berkeley police tried to pull over a black sedan and the driver took off, NBC Chicago reported, noting that the Illinois State Police were also involved. The station described a route that touched the Eisenhower Expressway (I-290) and Interstate 190 near O’Hare International Airport. Near Mannheim Road, the car lost a wheel and continued to flee.
The finish line was Westchester. ABC7 Chicago’s aerial coverage showed at least one person being taken into custody near Wolf Road. Berkeley police said all suspects were in custody, per NBC Chicago, though how many people that includes hadn’t been made public.
What hasn’t been released is just as important. Police haven’t publicly said why they tried to stop the car, how many people were inside, what charges anyone faces, or whether anyone was hurt. The make and model haven’t been identified, and nothing released so far explains how the wheel came off. We found no public statement from Berkeley police or Illinois State Police as of this writing. Anyone taken into custody is presumed innocent unless and until a court says otherwise.
Driving on a bare hub: what’s happening under that corner
Losing a wheel doesn’t make a car stop immediately, which is why it’s possible to keep going. What it does is take away everything that corner was contributing to the job of driving.
On a typical modern car, once the wheel is gone, that corner drops onto whatever sits behind the wheel: the hub face, the brake rotor, and possibly the caliper or suspension parts, depending on the design. None of those were built to touch pavement. Steel dragging on asphalt or concrete throws sparks, grinds itself down and grips the road far worse than rubber. The car’s weight isn’t balanced the way the suspension expects, either.
Then there’s stopping. The brake on a wheelless corner can’t do much of anything, because the rotor it clamps no longer has a tire to push against the road. The other three corners have to do all the braking, and the uneven grip tends to pull the car off line. Steering suffers for the same reason when the missing wheel is up front. The driver is basically piloting a three-legged table at traffic speed. Everything that corner is scraping against is getting destroyed as it goes.
That’s why wheel-off runs tend to be short. It’s also why they end so differently from a planned stop like the low-speed PIT that Sandy Springs officers pulled off: one is controlled, and the other is just wearing a car down.
The part nobody in the car is thinking about: the wheel itself
A passenger-car wheel with its tire commonly weighs somewhere in the 40- to 60-pound range. Once one comes loose at road speed, it can bounce, roll and cross lanes with no one steering it. On a busy expressway, that’s a hazard for everyone who had nothing to do with the chase.
Wheels generally separate for a short list of reasons: lug nuts that weren’t torqued properly, damaged or stretched studs, a failed hub or bearing, or impact damage from hitting something hard. In this case, nothing released so far shows which, if any, of those applied. The footage shows that the wheel was gone. It doesn’t show why, and we’re not going to guess.
For ordinary owners who aren’t running from anyone, the takeaway is simple. If your wheels were just off the car for tires, brakes or a rotation, it’s worth having the lug nuts re-torqued after the first stretch of driving, which many tire shops recommend. A new rhythmic clicking, a wobble or a vibration that gets worse with speed is worth checking right away. Wheels that are working loose usually give some warning before they leave.
How Illinois treats fleeing
No charges had been announced when this story was written, so this isn’t a prediction about this case. It’s a look at how Illinois law handles running from the police in general.
Under the Illinois Vehicle Code, fleeing or attempting to elude a peace officer is a Class A misdemeanor on a first offense. The stakes rise quickly under the aggravated version of the law, 625 ILCS 5/11-204.1. That section applies when a flight involves any of these:
- Driving at least 21 mph over the speed limit
- Causing bodily injury to anyone
- Causing more than $300 in property damage
- Disobeying two or more official traffic control devices
- Concealing or altering the vehicle’s registration plate
A first aggravated conviction is a Class 4 felony, and the statute tells the Secretary of State to revoke the driver’s license. Notice how low some of those bars are. Three hundred dollars in property damage doesn’t take much on a modern car. Whether any of this applies here is up to prosecutors and the courts, and it depends on facts that haven’t been released. Still, it shows how fast a traffic stop can turn into a felony case, the same way charges piled up in the Tennessee Camaro drag-race case. For more on how Illinois handles vehicle crimes, see our look at a Rolls-Royce stolen in transit that turned up in Illinois.
Who pays for a corner ground down to scrap
After any wheel-off, a shop generally has to inspect far more than the missing wheel. That means the hub and bearing, studs, rotor, caliper, brake lines and suspension on that corner, plus whatever else hit the pavement. A shop wouldn’t bolt on a new wheel and call it done on a hub that was dragged along the road.
Who covers that bill depends on the policy and the facts, and nothing public says who owns this car. In general, though, standard auto policies commonly exclude damage caused intentionally, and damage done while fleeing police is the kind of claim insurers look at closely. For owners, the lesson is simple. Driving a damaged car on purpose can turn a covered repair into one that comes out of your own pocket.
The bottom line
The helicopter shots will get the attention. The more useful lesson is about the car. A vehicle that has lost a wheel can still move, but it can’t reliably brake, steer or stay in its lane, and the wheel it dropped is loose on a public road. This chase ended on a quiet Westchester street with the driver stepping out. That’s a far better ending than chases like the Lake Geneva seatbelt stop that finished in Lake Como. We’ll update this story if Berkeley police, Illinois State Police or prosecutors release charges or other details.
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