A fire broke out in a car on Eastern Freeway on Tuesday morning, followed by a long queue of traffic with motorists stranded for over an hour.
According to the police, a Volvo SUV vehicle, traveling from Pune to Mumbai, exploded due to a technical problem and overheating, when it reached the Sewri area of the Freeway.
“The vehicle was at regular speed but the driver said it started to slow down automatically, and the accelerator stopped functioning. Seconds later, the driver noticed a cloud of smoke coming out of the vehicle's bonnet, and he immediately stepped out,” said an official from Sewri police station.
As soon as the driver noticed the smoke, he immediately stepped out of the vehicle after turning it off, and seconds later, it exploded by catching fire on its own, the official added.
“All the vehicles were stopped from going forward as the chances of them catching fire were high since the blaze was mighty. Subsequently, we informed the Fire Brigade too,” said another official from Wadala traffic division.
Two Fire Brigade Brought To The Spot
Two fire brigade vehicles were on the spot, but by the time they reached, the fire went off on its own - destroying and damaging the car. “It looked like a smoked pit, even the color of the vehicle was not visible. All its parts were destroyed in the fire,” the official said.
The Fire Brigade and traffic police officials had to wait for at least 30 to 35 minutes for the car to cool down before they towed the vehicle amongst a long queue of traffic piled up on both the sides of the Freeway.
“The queue of vehicles was too long and the Freeway was jammed, making it impossible for our towing vehicle to go through and out of it to evacuate the accident spot. Some traffic was diverted at the end, but a large number had already entered the Freeway. Hence it took us over 1 hour to tow the vehicle, and another hour to keep the traffic flowing as usual,” the official added.
Passengers At The Freeway Complain Of The Situation
Meanwhile, the vehicles stuck up behind this burnt car had to wait for over an hour amid the scorching summer heat. "Even though we have ACs in cars, how much fuel did we waste due to this? Traffic police could have diverted the traffic somewhere instead of leaving us hanging," said a motorist. Another one added saying, "Some people in the vehicles behind mine were puking after inhaling the black, cloudy smoke! It was a horrible scene!"
The burnt car was sent to Sewri police station, which will be later examined by the RTO officials to find the cause of the explosion. Since there were no casualties, police didn’t register a formal complaint but a diary entry at Sewri police station.
