A driver may face charges after police found his steering wheel wasn't attached to his car.
The man was stopped during Operation Traction, a pre-Christmas, multi-agency road safety blitz in Canterbury.
Senior Sergeant Glenn Nalder said the wheel came away in the hands of the New Zealand Transport Authority officerinspecting the vehicle, giving him quite a shock.
"The driver claimed he had been doing some work on the car to get it roadworthy -clearly not enough," said Mr Nalder.
"The stupidity of this driver is beyond description. It was a disaster waiting to happen."
