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Car overturns, catches fire after teen driver falls asleep
A teenager fell asleep while driving toward the Dandan area, causing her car to swerve to the shoulder of Isa Drive after the airport traffic light, overturn into a ditch, before it caught fire Wednesday morning.
The driver, a 19-year-old female, managed to get out from the car. Medics treated her for shock and transported her to the Commonwealth Health Center.
A firefighter sprays water into a car that overturned into a ditch and caught fire on the shoulder of Isa Drive in Dandan on Wednesday morning. Medics treated the 19-year-old female driver for shock. The teenager reportedly fell asleep while driving, causing her car to swerve. (DEREK GERSONDE)
The teenager had no passenger.
Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesman Derek Gersonde said DFEMS received a call about a vehicle on fire on the main road of Isa Drive after the airport traffic light on Wednesday at 8:16am.
Gersonde said firefighters arrived at the scene at 8:24am and extinguished and put the fire under control at 8:36am.
Arson investigators also later arrived.
Gersonde said when firefighters arrived, the teenager was found 30 feet away from the blue 2000 Toyota Camry that was fully engulfed in flames.
Arson investigators learned that the fire was caused by flammable liquid leaking and in contact with an ignition source within the engine compartment.
The car swerved into the ditch about 15 feet deep, and overturned with all four wheels in the air and angled toward the engine compartment.
The engine compartment had obvious signs of extended heat exposure that created a “clean burn” and is an indication of the fire’s origin, according to Gersonde.
He said the fire spread throughout the car because of the combustibility of the materials installed in the vehicle.
