A deputy sheriff in Tampa narrowly escaped his vehicle before it exploded after a car crash.
At 1 in the morning, a 2001 Ford Excursion was traveling eastbound on Bearss Avenue in Tampa, Florida. The problem was that the driver was on the wrong side of the street and had the vehicle's headlights off.
The driver went off the road, crashed into a tree, and then continued back to the street. It was then that he drove directly into a police car driven by Deputy Juan Lazu of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department.
The nearly head-on collision caused the police car to fly backwards approximately 45 feet. The car caught on fire and Lazu was trapped inside.
Unable to escape, Lazu immediately radioed for help. Other deputies arrived and managed to remove him from the car. With the timing of a suspenseful action movie, the police car exploded, just after Lazu escaped.
He was transported to Florida Hospital and treated for minor injuries.
The driver of the vehicle was intoxicated. He also had several previous arrests for driving while under the influence of alcohol. After being treated for injuries at St. Joseph's Hospital, he was promptly arrested.
The driver's fiancée told the press that she and her children had been in the vehicle earlier that evening. Because he was driving erratically and yelling, "I'm going to kill you all," she and her children jumped from the Excursion while it was still moving.