Budget Car Rental blames possible tire thieves after SUV sends driver, kids spinning out of control

When Norm Wylie's 12-year-old daughter Sammy, who has Type 1 diabetes, asked if he would take her and a friend on a road trip from Winnipeg to Minneapolis, Minn., to see her favourite YouTube stars, he couldn't say no.

"She gets needles, insulin injections every day and she never asks for anything, never complains. So when she said she wanted to do this, I of course said yes."

The group had scored hard-to-get tickets to see the Sturniolo Triplets, YouTube personalities with more than 5.5 million subscribers.

The plan was to rent a newer — and safer vehicle — than the one Wylie owns to make the almost 1,500 km drive to Minneapolis and back.

Instead, they got an SUV with tires so bald it sent them spinning out of control on a highway in a vehicle that legally, shouldn't have been on the road. According to one automobile consumer protection expert, it's a sign of the ongoing maintenance and safety issues plaguing some rental companies.

Wylie picked up his rental on Oct. 5 from a Winnipeg Budget Car and Truck Rental. He says the employee assured him that aside from a scratch in the paint, the 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander was good to go, and no walk-around inspection was done.

Less than an hour into the drive, it started raining. Sammy and her 13-year-old friend, June Burnett, were in the back seat.

"I could feel the vehicle hydroplaning," Wylie told Go Public.

"The next thing you know, we're doing 360s down the highway. The girls are screaming. I'm screaming. And then we flew backwards into the ditch."

"It was like a bad rollercoaster," said Sammy.

"My first thought was like, why is it happening? And the second was, I wasn't going to be able to go to the show."

Wylie says he was stunned and grateful no one was hurt.

Vehicle rental companies have a "checkered record" when it comes to maintenance, says George Iny, who heads up the Automobile Protection Association (APA).

He noted that safety can take a back seat to keeping vehicles on the road, a situation that was made worse by the pandemic and the vehicle shortage that followed.