Tire-less car leads deputies on slow chase

DECATUR — An allegedly intoxicated woman, inside a battered car with two missing tires, led deputies on a low-speed chase near Decatur on April 6.

A deputy first attempted to stop the silver car because he noticed one of the tires was missing and the car was being driven on the rim of the wheel, according to Doug Gay, public information officer for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.

Gay said he didn’t know the driver’s name but said he believed she was from Oklahoma.

The deputy turned on his blue lights and began following the car when he noticed a second tire was missing, Gay said.

“She wouldn’t stop, butshe wasn’t going very fast either,” he said.

The deputy’s sergeant called him off the pursuit and told him to follow the driver at a distance without lights.

The woman continued to drive down several back roads, including Mount Olive, at a slow rate of speed until her wheels were ground down so low the car could no longer go on, Gay said.

The car ran off the edge of the road between the intersection of Arkansas Highway 102 West and West Mountain Road and the Spavinaw River Bridge. The woman was arrested on charges of driving under the influence, he said.

Although the car’s front end was damaged and it looked as if it had been involved in a crash, the damage wasn’t caused by running off the road, Gay said. The deputies could notfind any reports of vehicle accidents or other propertydamage in recent history that matched the wreckageon the vehicle, and it was unclear if the vehicle hadbeen in a recent accident or one in the past, he said.