Last night Crumpet and I made the trip back from Ballarat in the dark, in pouring rain, at the normal 100-110km/hour.

This morning I left to fix a client’s machine, but I never got there. I was about 8-10 kms from home, in Bulleen, pulled up at the traffic lights. When they turned green I started to pull away, but the car jerked and refused to move. It felt like one of the wheels was in a hole. When I got out of the car to have a look, the front wheels were pointing in different directions.

The tie rod for the left wheel had sheared cleanly away from the steering rack.

This is never, ever supposed to happen. Cars are designed so that this part will never break.

Mine broke, and it could easily have broken last night on the freeway, in which case Crumpet and I would surely be dead.