Capt Surachart Thongyai of the Phuket City Police was notified of an accident at the entrance of Samkong Underpass in front of Thanachart Bank on the bypass road southbound at 1:40am today (Jan 22).
Firefighters arrived at the scene to find a black Mercedes Benz E350e overturned on the road with fire raging inside the engine and inside the car. No one was found in the car and it took firefighters 20 minutes to put out the fire.
The engine compartment of the vehicle was totally destroyed and a wheel of the car was found on the central reservation about 30 metres away.
A taxi driver who witnessed the accident, Sittichai Sengpa, 30, told police, “I was driving behind the Mercedes-Benz when I saw it heading towards the central reservation. The car then overturned and caught fire. I saw someone inside the car.
“Myself and other taxi drivers used fire extinguishers to try to put the fire out. I went to move my car and get another fire extinguisher when I saw the driver, who was around middle-aged, get out of the car and try to put the fire out but was unsuccessful.
“The driver then fled, maybe to the hospital” he said.
Capt Surachrt said, “We are continuing our investigation. At this stage we believed the driver could not see a central reservation as the lights were dim and there were no warning signs on the central reservation.
“We have to find and question the car driver,” he said.