A finance worker who repeatedly crashed her Smart car until its tyres fell off was pursued by cops with sparks flying from the vehicle’s wheels.
Jo-Hannah Eardley, 29, careered into a central reservation three times and was behind the wheel in the dark with no headlights on.
Officers giving chase reported “parts of the car were flying off” as it continued at high speed in west Edinburgh.
Cops were able to track the vehicle from marks in the road made by the exposed alloys.
And when they found it leaking petrol with heat coming from the wheels, firefighters were called out amid fears it could burst into flames.
Eardley appeared at the city’s sheriff court on Wednesday and admitted a charge of dangerous driving.
Fiscal depute Janet MacDonald said Eardley was driving along the city’s Glasgow Road at 11.25pm on April 14 when conditions were “dark but dry”.
Ms McDonald said another motorist saw the silver Smart car “swerving over the road” as it headed west before shooting through a red traffic light.
The court was told the concerned witness contacted police to alert them to the erratic driving.
Ms McDonald said a second witness spotted Eardley driving on the road with “no lights illuminated”. That driver “flashed” Eardley with his own beams to warn her, she added, but the lights remained off.
The prosecutor said Eardley’s car “began swerving over the lanes before colliding with the central reservation”.
It then swerved again and struck the near-side kerb before “almost striking other vehicles”, she said, forcing drivers to take “evasive action to avoid a collision”.
Witnesses saw Eardley’s car strike the central reservation once more before continuing on.
Eardley was next spotted a short time later near a BP garage on Glasgow Road where she was “attempting to put the smashed off-side wing mirror back into its position”, the court heard.
Police in a patrol car spotted Eardley driving near the Newbridge roundabout and followed her.
Ms MacDonald said officers noted “heavy damage to the vehicle and parts of the car were flying off”.
She said the Smart car was swerving onto the opposing carriageway and driving at high-speed, adding: “The off-side tyres had now detached. The alloy wheels were spraying sparks.”
She said cops could smell fuel leaking onto the roadway.
Other officers who joined the pursuit spotted “fresh marks” in the road near Deer Park Services, off the M8 motorway, and were able to follow them to Eardley’s unattended car.
Ms McDonald said cops found “both off-side tyres had disintegrated” and there was “heavy damage to the alloy wheels”.
There was also damage to the vehicle’s bumper, rear wing, tail-light and wing mirror.
The court heard officers contacted the fire service to attend due to exposed wiring and “heat emanating from the wheels”.
A check revealed Eardley was the insured driver and she was traced by officers in a nearby flat. Asked if she was the driver on Glasgow Road, she replied: “I will admit that was me.”
Sheriff Peter McCormack deferred sentence on Eardley, of Livingston, West Lothian, until next month for reports.
The sheriff imposed an interim driving ban on Eardley until that hearing.
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