Stevens in the States

Even if they tyre didn't.

So, I was driving along the toll road, doing about 65 miles an hour, when suddenly...

BRR BRR BRR THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD BANG!

The car lurched to one side, which wasn't good as there were three very thin lanes, and no hard shoulder because of roadworks. My front passenger side tyre had burst, so I got over to the inside lane and stopped, as by that point it felt like I was driving on the rim.

However, blocking a lane of a major highway isn't a wise thing to do, as cars started queueing and honking immediately.

Rather shaken up, I phoned the breakdown people straight away, who asked if I wanted police assistance. Realising that I would cause a crash if I was there for long, I said "yes".

And within a minute, a state trooper car turned up. (Note for the Brits, state troopers work over larger areas than the local police, who just deal with their patch. So you get the troopers on the major highways a lot.) He wouldn't let me stay on the highway as - quite rightly - I was causing a hazard. So I had to drive at 5 miles an hour down the highway, with him behind me with all lights blaring.

Then another police car turned up.

So now, I'm going down a motorway at the slowest speed possible, with two police cars flanking me, one shouting instructions to me over their tannoy! It was like a scene from one of those American real-life cops shows!

And the tyre? Well, far from good...



The police were great though - they got me to a parking lot, and 10 minutes later the breakdown company turned up and helped me with the spare wheel. Well, they changed the wheel, and I watched. Then they gave me a roadmap of Dallas and disappeared!

All in all - the police were fantastic, the breakdown guy was great, and it was all covered by my insurance. A happy ending to what could have been so much worse.