PHUKET: An injured Swedish driver was helped safely from his burning car after crashing into a roadside signpost in Thalang district on Sunday evening.
Pol Capt Vorawut Sensob, a Choeng Thale investigator, said the accident occurred about 5.30pm on Pasak Soi 1 road in tambon Choeng Thale.
Police called to the scene found an MG car in flames. The area was cordoned off before a fire engine of the Choeng Thale Municipality arrived. It took 20 minutes to extinguish the flames.
The car driver was identified later as Christoffer Mattias Hans Ottoson, a 47-year-old Swedish national. He was helped from the crashed car by a passer-by and taken to Thalang Hospital. He sustained a broken right arm and bled from the nose.
Phan Faikaew, 53, who helped the driver, said the car was heading for towards Ban Don from tambon Choeng Thale when it veered off the road and rammed into the signpost. He saw flames coming from underneath the car and hurried to help the injured driver escape.
He collected documents and money from the car and gave them to the driver, who was injured but still conscious.
After he helped the man from the car, it went up in flames and was destroyed, he added.