Punctured below the belt

Mark had to cough up close to $600 on new tyres after he drove over a bunch of nails he believed were deliberately thrown on the road. 139010 Picture: ROB CAREW

By LACHLAN MOORHEAD

A BERWICK man who drove over a cluster of nails he claimed were thrown deliberately is ropeable after spending close to $600 on new tyres.
Mark O’Sullivan was taking his kids to karate on Monday 4 May when he drove over “50-odd” nails spread across Golf Links Road, puncturing three of the tyres on his 2011 Mazda 3.
“The sun was in my eyes, and I didn’t have too much time to react because it was right on me,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“There were just these little dark flecks on the road. I went over them and all of a sudden they stuck in three of my tires.
“I knew straight away they were nails because of the way the car changed.”
Mr O’Sullivan said it looked like the nails had been thrown on the road deliberately and warned others to be wary.
He said there was no way he could have driven around them and predicted several other people would have had their tyres damaged as a result.
“I don’t think it fell off the back of somebody’s truck, there was no packaging,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“If it fell off a truck, it would have been a smaller spread.”
Mark drove home on the damaged tyres and returned to the scene with a brush and pan to clean up all the nails, which he has kept.
It cost Mr O’Sullivan just under $600 to have the tyres replaced.
“It was a very expensive karate lesson,” he said.