U'khand: Cabbie burns coal brazier inside car, dies of carbon monoxide poisoning

Nainital, Dec 30 (PTI) A cab driver in Uttarakhand's Nainital, a cab driver dies of suffocation after inhaling toxic fumes from a lit coal brazier that he had kept inside the car to keep himself warm, police said on Tuesday.

The incident that occurred on Sunday night has prompted police to issue an alert to drivers to avoid making such mistakes.

The taxi driver, Manish Gandhar, a resident Mathura, had come to Nainital from Noida with passengers on Sunday. After dropping off his passengers at a hotel around 9 pm, he parked his car in the Sukhatal parking lot.

To protect himself from the cold, he lit a coal brazier inside the car and went to sleep with all four windows closed, the police said.

The incident came to light around 8.30 am the next day when people in the parking lot saw the driver lying unconscious inside the car, covered with a blanket. When repeated attempts to wake him by knocking on the window failed, the police were informed.

A police team arrived at the spot and broke one of the window to open the car door, the police said, adding that a brazier was found burning inside the car and the driver was unconscious.

He was immediately taken to the hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Preliminary investigation revealed as the windows were closed, carbon monoxide gas from the brazier accumulated inside the car, causing his death by suffocation, the police said.

A purported video of the incident is also making rounds on social media where, police can be seen breaking the glass window and taking out the brazier out of the car, while a man is laying on the back seats of the car unconscious.

Following the incident, the police have appealed to drivers and tourists not to light fires inside vehicles or in enclosed spaces without proper ventilation. PTI DP NB NB