Slight Change of Plans

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There was an "incident" on Wednesday when my coworker had the company truck we share and a nail got into the tire and flattened it—luckily we work in concrete mixer truck mechanic's shops and so one of his customers was able to plop the spare on. I should note it's a real spare, not a spare spare. Thing is, one of the lug nuts burst and so the wheel is missing one lug nut. And of course the truck now has no good spare. I will be traveling next week, starting Tuesday, headed off for a trip that will require over 2000 miles of driving. Before I left the office yesterday I asked both the boss and my coworker, "Hey, do you think the truck is safe to drive on an extended trip with a missing lug nut?" Never mind I have no spare. The boss seemed shockingly irritated by my question. I would easily use term that he barked agitatedly in his response. "Well, if you want it fixed one of you is going to have to clock in tomorrow morning and take it over to Dobbs." The place we use for tires and tire repairs. I will be taking the truck this morning to have a new lug nut put on and have the spare repaired. And yes, I will be clocking in to do this. Of course. It only makes sense. But let me make one thing abundantly clear here: The truck belongs to the company. The responsibility of ensuring I am provided with a safe, operating vehicle to use is the responsibility of the company and the MANAGER. The responsibility of addressing any safety concerns rests on everyone of course—but ultimately rests on the shoulders of the MANAGER. The responsibility of taking care of any safety concerns is the responsibility of the MANAGER. So, the question is, if the manager was aware of the missing lug nut and having no spare, and the manager was fully aware I would be driving on an extended trip with a lug nut missing and no spare tire, and the manager saw fit to not address the issue until I myself brought it into question—he was going to be fine to let me go with the truck in this state—am I missing something that there is something quite a bit wrong with this picture? Certainly the manager can assign anyone to take care of what is needed. But he has to assign that task first, right? And shouldn't it have been his immediate directive before I asked the question? Should I have had to have asked the question? The answer to the first question is yes. The answer to the second question is no. We just had a major safety issue which prompted us to fire an employee and just two weeks later the manager, in this case, was complicit in failing to make a judgement about the company truck that he should have made without my prompting. I am little concerned about that. Meanwhile I still plan to go to Penzey's on the Missouri side of the river—it's just going to have to take a little bit of a back seat depending on how long it takes to get the truck taken care of.