A driver has been injured after a bouncing wheel hit his vehicle on Highway 401 Thursday afternoon.

Emergency crews were called to the eastbound lanes of the highway near Courtice Road just after 3:30 p.m.

Ontario Provincial Police say a westbound pickup truck lost a wheel, which then bounced into the eastbound lanes and struck a vehicle.

The OPP say the driver was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

"When you have a bouncing tire coming towards you at highway speed, drivers in the opposite direction have next to no time to react, and the outcome could be deadly," OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said in a Twitter video, providing an update on the incident.

He said police responded to two other incidents involving trucks losing their wheels on Thursday, including on the eastbound lanes of Highway 401 at Neilson Road.

He said no vehicles were hit in those incidents.

"It is troubling to see three occurrences like this happening in one day," he said.

While the cause is not yet known, Schmidt said there is an increase in wheel separations at this time of the year when people are taking off their winter tires and installing summer tires.

"If they're not installed properly, this could be the result," he said.

Last week, a woman was 'lucky to be alive' after a loose tire hit her windshield while driving on Highway 401 near Renforth Road.

"A reminder to everyone – check those wheel nuts, check those wheel fasteners. Make sure they're properly installed," Schmidt said.