When Robert Parker heard a clunk and several thunking sounds coming from under his car — as though a part had come loose and thudded away on the highway behind him — he pulled the 2003 Nissan Maxima onto the shoulder and got out of the car only to see smoke coming from it.
Within five or ten minutes, the car was engulfed in flames.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Parker said later. “It was an OMG moment.”
The 25-year-old West Point resident was driving east on U.S. 82 on his way to his girlfriend’s house in Columbus at about 1 p.m. Monday. He and his girlfriend were the only ones in the car.
Parker has had the car about seven years and said he knew it might have problems making the drive. It was one of the reasons he decided to take U.S. 82 to Columbus instead of U.S. 50. If it was going to stop, he said he didn’t want it to stop on a one-lane bridge.
“It was on its last legs,” he said.
Still, he was shocked when he had to pull the car over just past the overpass after the exit to Golden Triangle Regional Airport. There was no warning before the noise began, Parker said — no strange smell, no lights appearing on his dashboard.
He thought the gears might be getting tired, he said. But when he got out of the car, he saw smoke.
At that moment, he and his girlfriend decided to get away from the vehicle. They both walked back to stand under the over pass to call 911 and wait for help.
Parker said he was shocked by how quickly everything happened from there. At first it was just a little tendril of smoke.
“And then it started getting vicious,” he said.
Then the car just went up in flames, he said.
Parker said he was in a state of shock.
“I was lost for words,” he said. “I was in awe.”
Authorities from the Lowndes County Fire Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol responded to the accident and cut off a stretch of the highway while they put out the fire. Traffic backed up on 82 East, and drivers on 82 West could see the smoke snaking its way north from almost halfway to the Macon exit.
One couple got out of their car to see what they could do to help, Parker said. That was one of the things he remembers most — everybody who came to his aid, from the couple to the authorities, were extremely helpful.
Authorities still don’t know what caused the fire, but Mississippi Highway Patrol Trooper Greg Bell suspects a ruptured fuel line. The car is a total loss.
It’s can be common for cars to catch fire in the summer, said Mississippi Highway Patrol Trooper Greg Bell, who sees one or two such incidents per month during hot weather. But usually it’s due to engine trouble and the fires stay small, he said. This fire burned the entire car.
He said it’s rare for cars to catch fire as quickly as Parker’s did.
“From what everybody said, it just engulfed the car extremely fast,” Bell said.
Though Parker is glad no one was hurt, and thought he had known the car was near the end of its life, he is still surprised by how it went out.
“I didn’t see that coming,” he said. “Period.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
