RCMP on Vancouver Island are investigating a suspected drunk driver, after he was seen driving down Highway 1 without a tire and leaving a trail of sparks.
Stuart Carmichael and a group of friends were on their way home from Qualicum Beach Saturday night when they passed the vehicle going the other direction.
“We noticed the headlights and this odd orange-like glow coming from around it. And then the closer we got we realized like, oh, this person has lost a tire,” he told Global News.
“Immediately the thoughts are starting to run through all of our heads like, this person has had a medical incident or is incoherent or is fleeing the scene of an accident.”
The group turned their truck around and began to follow the vehicle at a distance, while calling 911 to report it.
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Eventually, he said, they were able to pull up alongside the car on a safe stretch of highway.
“And that’s when we noticed the driver was holding his hand up against the window and blocking his face, so that way nobody would see him or be able to recognize him,” he said.
Carmichael continued to follow the the driver into Duncan, where his vehicle engine appeared to finally give out.
“It’s amazing he only had green lights all the way. I was certain there was going to be an accident and he was going to blow through a red light,” he said, adding the man nearly struck a cyclist as he pulled into a hotel parking lot.
“He was completely oblivious. He started talking about how he had a tire problem a little way back and he put on a spare tire. It wasn’t there.”
Police arrived shortly afterward and gave the man a field sobriety test, which he failed, Carmichael said.
RCMP confirmed the man’s vehicle was impounded and he was handed a seven-day immediate roadside prohibition.
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