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Car's explosion on Del. 1 'horrendous,' witness says
robin brown
The News Journal
A crashed car exploded in fire Sunday on Del. 1 in Dover, causing hours-long backups of northbound traffic.
The driver, although injured and hospitalized, escaped just before fire engulfed her car.
"The first thing we saw was pitch black smoke clouds," said witness Carol Tavani of Wilmington, who was a short distance behind the crash as she headed home from Bethany Beach. Then the car exploded, she said, and "you could see flames shooting up into the sky."
State police and emergency personnel spent Sunday night at the scene of the 5:36 p.m. crash, where a light post hit by the car fell across all northbound lanes.
All of northbound Del. 1 was closed for about an hour, with police and transportation officials urging motorists to avoid the area and traffic diverted to U.S. 13.
Only one lane on the far right was reopened by 8 p.m. Sunday.
State police say charges are pending against the driver, Ericha Prather, 35, of the Newark area, who was alone in her car at the time of the crash.
Prather was driving north in the left lane, just north of the Exit 95 on-ramp, when she veered off the roadway for unknown reasons, Sgt. Richard D. Bratz said.
Her car hit a guard rail, then the light pole, blocking all northbound lanes when it fell, he said. No vehicles are known to have been hit by the falling post.
Prather got out of her car on her own, Bratz said, and moments later, "the vehicle became fully engulfed in flames."
Traffic immediately started merging to the left to go around the blazing wreck, Tavani said, adding, "Then you could see it was the crumpled remains of a car."
"It was white with heat," she said. "You could feel the heat, it was so intense that we went onto the grass median a little to get away from the heat."
After passing the wreckage, she saw the flashing lights of arriving police and emergency personnel.
"I prayed all the way home that the people, any animals in the car, didn't get killed," Tavani said.
Prather suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, Bratz said.
She was taken to Bayhealth Kent General Hospital in Dover, where her condition was not available.
Charges are pending the conclusion of the state police investigation of the crash, Bratz said.
Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.
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