'Very, very drunk' woman arrested by police after tyre 'disintegrates' while driving

Officers swooped to arrest the woman on Wheatley Hall Road on Saturday afternoon (Nov 20) after worried fellow drivers spotted that one of her tyres had disintergrated – and she was driving on only the alloy wheel, oblivious to the damage.

And the driver reportedly expressed surprise to police after being charged – telling officers she thought she would be ‘let off’ with it being her first offence.

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “Whilst we were patrolling the Doncaster area on Saturday afternoon, we got a call from some concerned members of the public.

"They found it odd that the Ford Fusion in the picture was happily motoring along at the speed limit with only three good tyres.

"They had tried to attract the driver’s attention, but we suspect that she couldn’t hear them over the racket of the tyre disintegrating as she drove along followed by sound of alloy wheel on tarmac once the tyre had given up, damaged the front nearside of her car and been thrown across Wheatley Hall Road.

"Given it was Saturday afternoon on one of Doncaster’s busier roads, it wasn’t long before the Fusion stopped in queuing traffic at a set of red traffic lights, so one or two people got out of their cars to point out the damage to her car.

"It was also quite clear that the reason the driver was oblivious to the din she was making, not to mention the danger she was putting others and herself in, was because she was very, very drunk.

"After being asked by the people that stopped her not to go anywhere, because of the damage to her car and because she was smashed, the female driver took five minutes to collect herself before carrying on with her journey.

"Thankfully, she only managed to get to the next set of lights before she stopped again, this time, giving her keys to someone so she couldn’t drive any further. When we arrived, the driver was still in the driver’s seat adamant that she was going to go home. Naturally, we disagreed.

"After moving her car somewhere safe, we got the driver to the police station where she was asked to provide two samples of breath on the evidential breath test machine.

"The lowest reading was 128 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

"The legal limit is 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – so just about four times the limit.

"After many hours of sobering up in custody, the driver was charged with driving whilst over the prescribed limit and bailed to court.

"This probably came as something of a surprise to the lady in question, as she was firmly of the opinion that she would be 'let off' with it being her first offence.

"Finally, a very big “thankyou” to the members of the public that managed to stop this lady before she caused a lot of damage, or very possibly much, much worse, further down the road.”