Four Indians were killed and another injured, when the Tesla car they were driving caught on fire after it crashed into a guardrail and hit a concrete pillar in Toronto, Canada. The incident occurred on Thursday, at 12:15 am (local time).
According to CTV News, the vehicle lost control following which it struck a guardrail and a concrete pillar on Lake Shore Boulevard. However, it remains unclear what caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle.
“Upon impact, the vehicle then caught fire," Duty Inspector Phillip Sinclair was quoted by the CTV News.
While names of the deceased have not been released, police said they were a 26-year-old man, a 29-year-old man, a 32-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman. A 25-year-old woman was rescued by passersby, one of whom was Rick Harper. He said saw the high flames as he was driving on Lake Shore Boulevard. Harper was equipped with a fire extinguisher and decided to pull over to help.
He and another bystander decided to break open the window with a bar, it took the two a few swings to finally break open the window and, the 25-year-old woman crawled out of the car. However, she was in so much shock that she didn’t provide any information. She was taken to the hospital but didn’t suffer any life-threatening injuries.
Harper said didn’t know there were other occupants inside besides the driver. But he recalled seeing the Tesla’s interior filled with smoke and hearing a “small voice” that was “letting out yells.”
“It was so muffled and so quiet and so weak. That’s what hurts, hearing a voice and then finding out later, a few hours later, people were in that car, and nobody knew. Nobody knew until the fire was out,” he told CTV News. The incident was traumatic for Harper.
He said that if he had known that somebody was in there they would have tried to crawl in and save the people inside. He said that it was very dark and they couldn’t see anything.
Later, firefighters took over and extinguished the flames completely when they arrived.