Wodonga quartet caught by road spikes after no-pursuit directive

The boys, aged 13 to 16, escaped injury after the stolen Ford they were travelling in hit police road spikes just west of Wodonga's Melrose Drive overpass about 8am on Wednesday.

Wangaratta police service area boss Inspector David Ryan said the incident was an example of the recently introduced no-pursuits policy in action.

 "This is the sort of thing we will do into the future, we will avoid pursuing young men in stolen cars,” Inspector Ryan said.

"The whole idea is that everybody goes home at the end of the day nice and safe.

"There was a direction given that they're not to be pursued under any circumstances.

"We can investigate things in other ways and we will catch up with these young men down the track if they don't stop when we ask them to do so."

Police had been alerted to the Ford, which was stolen from a Wodonga property between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, driving erratically about 30 minutes before it crashed.

Inspector Ryan said police had pulled over another vehicle when the northbound Ford hit road spikes in the right lane of the freeway.

"The police members had set up the road spikes ready for deployment, should the stolen car come along, however again coincidentally when the young men have tried to avoid the police unit on the side of the road here they've actually driven over the road spikes that were on the far side of the median strip,” Inspector Ryan said.

"They've been out of control at the time they've actually run over the road spikes that were bundled on the far side of the road, so they've cleaned up our road spikes and managed to crash the car."

One of the teenagers was charged with aggravated burglary and car theft, while the other three were each charged with car theft.

More charges may be laid.

The freeway was reduced to one northbound lane, while police investigated the crash scene.