My wife and I were coming back from a dinner out. We were still on the interstate when we saw this huge plume of black smoke, all four lanes had come to a crawl. I joked to my wife that there was a car engulfed in flames. When we got closer we could see that that was exactly what it was! Jinny was quick with the camera but she forgot to roll down the window (sheesh!). As an unexpected bonus there was a big guy about twenty feet in front of this spectacle being wrestled to the ground by three cops!

So here it is, an RCG exclusive for my buddies here on the forum. At the time this is posted this image will be 15 minutes old.

My wife thanked me for an exciting date.

So then, What's the story?

Originally Posted by Bilbobaker

So then, What's the story?

No story. Just routine traffic stop with police interceptors, and laser guided missiles. Probably was observed without his seat belt fastened.

That was Thursday night. It hasn't made today's news so far, on air or in print, probably because no one died. I'll give an update if I find out anything new.

Unfortunately I've watched the local news coverage here in Las Vegas grow increasingly jaded over the past 25 years I've lived here.

Flaming car on the highway complete with curb wresting would make the news up here in Elk Snout country.

Originally Posted by Gerald

No story. Just routine traffic stop with police interceptors, and laser guided missiles. Probably was observed without his seat belt fastened.

Ha, I think I met that traffic cops cousin here in Oregon a few months ago.
Comes from a family of citation cops that hate seat belt offenders.

Well, the incident turned out to be a non-incident just like Gerald surmised. I looked through this weekend's newspapers carefully and found nothing.

Then I had a brilliant idea... I'll go talk to Tony, the local highway patrolman that flies a Cessna 182 out of the airport where I work! He said he'd get back with me.

This is all through the NHP grapevine but it turns out the car was initially pulled over for driving "erratically". Then, when they came to a stop, the guy gets out and HE starts acting erratically.
Because there's only the one cop on the scene he just tries to assess the situation and is only talking to the guy and trying to calm him down.

Then the car catches fire!

Another squad car arrives on the scene and the diplomacy tactics are replaced with strong-arm tactics and that's when my wife took the picture.

Nothing official on why the car caught fire but Tony thought the guy, in his panic, inadvertently threw his cigarette (or something else) in the back seat when he was getting pulled over.