The very few ft dropout failures I've seen (including mine described above) were rather anti climatic. Much like one axle nut, of a nutted wheel, coming loose. Some weird (till you realize what's going on) flopping about of the wheel, the steering is like a car's when the rack or ball joints are loose. Appling the front brake help stabilize the slop, a pretty natural reaction when things go wrong in general.

Now I don't suggest one "tries this at home" as it's not right and bad stuff isn't always predictable. Just that the ones I've experienced or have had first hand stories about were not the big deal we might initially think.

If we think about the redundancy of our bike's designs most all members (frame tubes, wheels) that directly influence steering and bear weight are connected at two ends/two points. It's things like stems, pedals and steerers failing that make me REALLY worry. Andy