Driver allegedly steers car with vice grip

A woman allegedly tried to drive an unregistered, unwarranted car with flat tyres and vice grips replacing the missing steering wheel, police say.

Rotorua police investigated a suspicious, abandoned vehicle on State Highway 5, Mamaku, on Thursday morning and found an unregistered, unwarranted vehicle with a missing steering wheel parked in a rural driveway.

Police said on Facebook that the occupants had left the car there days earlier.

An officer saw the vehicle being driven a short time later towards Tirau, approaching a roadwork site controlled with a stop/go sign.

The driver was stopped and allegedly found to be controlling the vehicle with vice grips.
The vehicle also allegedly had bald and flat tyres. It was issued with a Pink Sticker and ordered off the road.

This was the second case of a vehicle allegedly being driven with vice grips this week that Bay of Plenty police have dealt with.

Less than 24 hours earlier, a driver also allegedly using vice grips to steer, was involved in a crash with another vehicle on Pyes Pa Rd, south of Tauranga.

A 28-year-old woman was to appear in Rotorua District Court on a number of charges including dangerous driving.