The police bodycam footage is dramatic. A police officer asks a parked driver, “What’s going on?” And she pleads with him to leave her alone. “I’m trying to figure out where I’m going and what I’m doing. I’m figuring out my situation!” Then the officer steps back and the car’s wheels come into view: It’s tires are completely gone and the woman has obviously been driving on the rims.
Driving without tires is a wheelie bad idea
The Mount Ephraim, New Jersey Police Department received a call about a motor vehicle crash at 10 PM one April night. When Patrolman Joseph Vogt arrived he expected to find totaled and parked cars. Instead he reported “A black 2018 Nissan Altima with severe front-end damages that was driving erratically.”
He hit his lights to pull the Nissan over. She didn’t stop her car, but she did spit out a shredded tire as she sped off. After Patrolman Vogt removed the tire from the road, he hurried after her. And he found her. Parked by the side of the road and, apparently, sleeping.
She soon woke up. And then she suffered what you might call a complete blowout.
The driver identified herself as Corissa. When Patrolman Vogt said her car was “completely totaled” she argued “My car is not totaled. My car literally has three things (wrong with it).” Fair enough, but one of those “things” was that all of her tires were shredded and she was driving on rims. Another one of those “things” was extensive front-end damage, presumably from the crash.
Mount Ephraim and New Jersey have no specific law against driving on your car’s rims. Corissa was instead charged with “unsafe tires.” Her other charges included “Operating under the influence, reckless driving, driving without a license, failure to possess driver license, failure to possess driver registration, open container of alcohol.”
When police found Corissa’s BAC was 0.18% they refused to release her to her boyfriend until he signed a “Potential Liability Warning form” on her behalf. Unfortunately, she was arrested for a second DWI a few weeks later. You can see Patrolman Vogt’s “tireless” bodycam footage embedded below:
