Stephen’s lungs were severely damaged after the incident which saw his Land Rover explode and burst into flames on a busy road in Cardiff
Stephen Harris was inside his car when it exploded and caught fire in Cardiff
A man whose car exploded on a busy Cardiff road whilst he was inside before it burst into flames has spoken about the terrifying ordeal. Stephen Harris, 36, was found slumped over the steering wheel of his Land Rover Discovery when it caught fire on Tyndall Street on Monday.
Speaking to WalesOnline after the incident, Stephen said he thought he was going to die as he sat disorientated in a car that was quickly filling up with thick smoke.
Moments earlier, he had been driving towards a busy roundabout from the Central Link road when his car began to falter and smoke started coming from the engine. He soon noticed that his brakes weren’t working and he prepared to crash.
Stephen described the incident: “I was coming off the link road from 50mph to 30mph on the exit. As I was coming towards the exit, my oil light came on and I heard a big pop. I started to see white smoke billowing out of the car, but I thought it was the exhaust or something. As I was driving down the slip road, my brakes wouldn’t work. I was trying to brake, and it wouldn’t work, the accelerator was jammed. The rev counter on the car was just pinging into the red.
“I basically prepared myself to drive into the barrier because there was traffic on the roundabout. I was preparing myself to crash in panic mode, and then it sort of started juddering a bit and came to a halt, and then just sort of kicked back into normal.”
Heading towards Tyndall Street, Stephen from Ton Pentre, pulled into the left turning lane to try to get to a safe place to stop the vehicle when disaster struck. Never miss a Cardiff story by signing up to our daily newsletter here
The car began making “awful noises” as he stopped at a red light and smoke was billowing from the under the hood of the car.
Within seconds the car exploded with a “boom” whilst the father of four was in the driver’s seat. He added: “Fire started coming up over the driver’s side window, under the window, black smoke and white smoke started filling in the car.”
Recalling the “terrifying” incident, Stephen recalled: “I couldn’t see and it was getting in my eyes and the next thing I tried to open the door and I tried [to] remember what was in the car that I had to grab, I was so disoriented and I didn’t know what was going on. I know I got the door slightly open, and then I just remember a hand going around my neck and my clothes and someone dragging me.”
That was the moment that the brave driver in the vehicle behind rescued Stephen from the burning car just before the two front tyres exploded.
Martin Hancock from Cardiff remembers the moment he rushed to the aid of the driver in front as he found him “slumped over the wheel” and dragged him out.
He said: “I was behind him at the traffic lights and noticed that smoke had started to fill his car up. I got out of the van and flames had already engulfed the front of the car.
“I opened the driver’s door and he was slightly slumped over the steering wheel. I pull him from the car and across the road outside the hotel. It must have been maybe a minute after doing so that the tyres on the car exploded and flames entered the front of the car where he was sat.”
Martin helped Stephen breathe again and poured water over his face to wash his mouth out. The next thing Stephen remembers is throwing up the water and black soot that he had inhaled whilst inside the burning car.
“I thought I was going to die”, Stephen said. “But Martin saved me and I want to thank him for that.”
Stephen also thanked the manager at Novotel, Cardiff after she helped him as they waited for the emergency services.
He said: “The lovely lady, the manager of the hotel, the Novotel, she was a lifesaver as well. She got me a wheelchair and a foil blanket. She was amazing. Honestly, she didn’t leave my side.”
Police, fire and paramedics attended the scene on Monday morning as they closed the road and the flames were put out for the car to be recovered.
Upon carrying out a check of Stephen, the paramedics at the scene advised him to call someone to take him to hospital where he was treated for unsafe levels of oxygen and CO2 and an x-ray showed scratches on his lungs.
He stayed at the Royal Glamorgan hospital for about seven hours before being cleared to go home. He said at the time he still felt unwell and was coughing up soot from his lungs.
Looking back at the experience, Stephen is glad his four children – Connor, 8, Frankie, 4, Mila 2 and eight-month-old Axel – were not in the car and that his children “don’t have to mourn me”.
