Axle broke, tire exploded

Just wanted to share with you my unfortunate drive with a '02 Freelander today, in a snowy day. I was making a right turn on a street and while trying to squeeze in between a truck that was exiting and the curb, I scratched my tire by the curb and suddenly a huge bang and the car stopped in its tracks. The seatbelt held me otherwise I would've bumped my head on the windshield, even though I was driving very slow; that's how sudden the stop was.

Before checking what happened I tried moving a little and so I steered to the left, then straightened out the wheels, but the car kept going left until I got all the way on the other side of the street. Turns out my right tire blew up, the wheel was badly scratched and turned at a 45 degree inwards (to the left.) I tried steering all the way to the right and only the left wheel would turn, so I ended up with the front wheels in this position: / \
 
Got the car on a flatbed, straigtened out the right wheel with my hand and then took these pics:
 

 

 
This is gonna cost me...
 
Could the axle brake down because of a tire explosion at such a slow speed? Any of you had a similar problem before?

I popped the hood today and the power steering fluid reservoir cap was gone and nowhere to be found, and a mark was made on the hood's protective cover, obviously having popped off. Suprisingly there was still fluid in there, having lost very little.
 
In the meanwhile I figured why the tire had exploded; I squeezed it between the curb and the rim; the blow caused the axle to snap and that caused the power steering cap to pop off. Sounds a little incredible, but it's the only possible explanation.

Check your tire pressure, mine were according to the specs, but they always looked a little too deflated to me.