At least three motorists got flat tires after a "spike strip" designed to stop car chases accidentally fell out of a Newport Beach Police Department vehicle.
Newport Coast resident Meghan Marcum was driving home down East Coast
Highway on a rainy night last month when she felt the front left tire of
her 2003 Honda Civic give out.
When Marcum got out of her car,
she discovered that her left rear tire was also flattened.
“It
scared me,” Marcum told the Daily Pilot. “It was raining and cold. I was in heels, and I
don’t have any family in California.”
Marcum and at least two
other motorists had their tires spiked Feb. 27 by a tire-deflation
device that police use to slow fleeing suspects. Marcum’s tires deflated
within seconds and without a sound, she said.
The device had
fallen out of a Newport Beach police officer’s Chevy Tahoe after he
forgot to shut the back door, according to a police report. Now,
Marcum and at least one other driver want the city of Newport Beach to
pay to replace their tires. Read the full story here.
— Brianna Bailey
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