CAR CRASH KARMA: Truck tire comes loose

Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Dhr. Seven (karmic commentary), Wisdom Quarterly

Authorities with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) are investigating a wild crash that sent a car [Kia SUV] and its 29-year-old driver careening into a midair spin before crashing onto the road.

The crash, which was captured on video by a Tesla’s dashboard camera, occurred on March 23 in [the San Fernando Valley on] the eastbound lanes of the 118 Freeway near De Soto Avenue in Chatsworth.

The video shows a dark-colored Kia approaching a Chevrolet pickup that had just transitioned into the middle lane. Moments later, the front driver’s side tire of the truck pops off in front of the Kia, sending the Kia into a midair spin before crashing onto the freeway...

• DETAILS: CHP investigating terrifying crash caused by runaway tire in Los Angeles (ktla.com)

What's "karma" got to do with anything?

What goes around comes around. It's like an inexplicable "act of God" if God were impersonal.

• No one was hurt in the incident. Miraculously, the driver who lost the tire and the car that flipped on account of that lost tire survived without injury -- except for possible life-long psychological damage.
• Why the tire remained so intent on hitting the Kia is not explained, but it can be seen returning to the scene and hitting the Kia again once it is a smoking heap of metal that has come to a complete stop, suggesting that karma is at play here. It's like a game of pool: one ball hits another hits another hits another...
• Most karma is not "instant karma" like the Beatles sang about. Most of it playing out from intentional actions committed long, long ago, rebounding on us now and therefore seeming to make no sense. But that is how karma (an intentional action or deed) plays out. The results of karma are called phala (fruit) and vipaka (resultant).
• The action is not the result, though we commonly and unthinkingly use the same word for both. And the result is not at all the only result from that one action. It bears fruit again and again, life after life. This is because in the forming of an action (thought, word, or deed), there are many cittas or mind moments, many impulsions, each like a seed, bearing its fruit in the future. This is good news when it's good karma because it means it will "reward" us again and again.
• But when it's bad karma, it's bad news because it will come back to ("punish") us again and again, seemingly without explanation. For this reason alone, abstain from unskillful actions and repeatedly engage in skillful ones. You will be happy for a long time to come following this simple advice.
• But wait, What is "good" and what is "bad," what is skillful (wholesome, kusala) and unskillful (unwholesome, akusala)? Anything motivated by greed, hatred, and delusion (attraction, aversion, and ignorance) is rooted in the bad and will bear bad (unwelcome) results.
• Namely, there are Five Precepts to live by to be a human again, and these are the reason we are human now, which are abstaining from: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, bearing false witness, and consuming intoxicants that occasion heedlessness.
• Anything motivated by nongreed, nonhatred, or nondelusion (letting go, friendliness, or wisdom) is rooted in the good and will bear good (welcome) results.