THE accident happened more than 300m from where he was.

And the Hong Kong cabby was shocked to learn that he was involved in it.

The 60-year-old driver, who's identified only as Mr Wang, was driving in the streets of Hong Kong on Tuesday when the front left wheel of his taxi came off, reported Apple Daily.

It rolled away from the vehicle, travelling 300m down the road before hitting a stone barrier.

The wheel bounced off the barrier and flew off the road, onto the walkway on the other side, where it struck a 66-year-old pedestrian in the back.

Fortunately, she was not seriously injured.

The driver, still unaware of his missing wheel, continued driving. But he soon noticed that his taxi was starting to drift.

Mr Wang stopped the cab and got out to see what was the matter. By then, he had travelled about 50m without the front wheel. He was alarmed to see that the wheel was gone, and there was a mark on the road where the vehicle had scraped it.

To make things worse, a bystander told him that his wheel had hit a passer-by.

The force of the impact had knocked the woman to the ground.

The victim, who gave her name as Madam Yang, was sent to the hospital, and later discharged without serious injury.

Mr Wang said that the taxi had just come back from the workshop on Monday.

The other cabby who shared the vehicle had then driven it for a full night shift without incident before handing it over to him on Tuesday morning.

The taxi and the wheel have both been taken to a government inspection centre in Hong Kong.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Nov 27, 2008.