Lucky escape as wheel comes off

A motorist in Oamaru was fortunate to escape injury or cause a major accident on Friday night, after a wheel, which police said had been tampered with, fell off the vehicle while it was being driven.

Community Constable Bruce Dow said the car had been tampered with on a previous occasion.

"Just after midnight on Friday night we received a complaint that wheel nuts have been removed from a vehicle parked in Stour St, the second such occurrence in a month to the same vehicle. This time the wheel actually fell off while the vehicle was being driven.

"This had the potential for quite a serious incident to occur."

Const Dow said the wheel had fallen off close to the driver's home on Stour St. Police had no idea why the car was being targeted, but they would welcome any information.

andrew.ashton@odt.co.nz