A pickup truck flipped and burned on a busy Surrey street Tuesday evening (July 20).
It happened on 64th Avenue, near 172nd Street, at around 10:35 p.m.
A woman named Jen said the older-model, two-seat truck crashed into a tree, which also caught fire.
“I was just heading to bed – it was a very loud crash and I sprinted out the door,” said Jen, who posted video of the incident to Facebook.
“Just the way it sounded, it sounded very serious,” she added. “The driver was just crawling out of the vehicle when I got out there. He looked OK and I sat with him to make sure he wasn’t walking around on a broken leg or anything like that.”
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“Gasoline was pouring down the street and people were trying to get close to get pictures, and it was igniting very quick,” Jen added.
The driver later fled the scene, but police caught up to him with the help of witnesses, according to Surrey RCMP Sergeant Elenore Sturko.
Sturko added the driver was arrested for a driving prohibition and impaired driving. The investigation is ongoing.
Jen figures the westbound truck hit the curb and flipped.
One tree caught fire, Jen said, and another cracked from the impact of the collision.
“The one tree probably stopped him from rolling into a house there,” Jen said Wednesday morning (July 21). “The homes are right there by the road, and my concern was that the flames were going to travel. Luckily, the fire trucks got there very quick, it was an incredible response.”
Jen said a secondary accident was caused when a driver struck a tool kit that had flown out of the pickup truck’s bed. Sturko said that driver was uninjured.
“A younger driver plowed into that and almost hit a third car,” Jen added.
“There’s a lot of near-misses on the street there. We hear the screeching tires a lot and brace for impact.”
with file from Lauren Collins
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