One man was taken to hospital after the pickup truck he was driving went out of control in loose gravel and wedged itself between a utility pole and and its guy wire.
The accident happened at the intersection Rosstown and Whitney roads shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday.
"He slows almost to a stop. He pulls into the gravel – mats it," said Dan Ledingham, who was driving on Rosstown Road with his family behind the GMC pickup.
Pea gravel flying off the truck's tires smashed out the passenger side window and cracked the windshield of Ledingham's car.
The truck then collided with a utility pole guy wire where it spun its rear tires tires until friction with the ground started one of them on fire.
"The engine continued to run at full throttle for at two to three minutes," Ledingham said.
Kathleen Arsenault, who was riding with Ledingham, and other passersby helped pull the driver out of his truck.
"He was unconscious, but he kept coming to," Arsenault said.
Members of the South Island Traffic Division, who were conducting a traffic enforcement operation nearby, responded when they heard the truck hit the utility pole and saw powerlines bouncing from the impact.
"Members tended to the male while another member used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames," said Const. Gary O'Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman.
O'Brien also confirmed the crash was the result of the driver's preexisting medical condition.
"There were some issues about him actually being legally allowed to drive at that point, so he was issued a violation ticket for no driver's license," O'Brien said.
Firefighters extinguished the burning tire and the driver was taken to hospital.