A high-speed police pursuit on Kings Road near Nausori on the night of November 5, 1985, resulted in the deaths of two men when the truck they were escaping in veered off the road and crashed. The wreckage of the truck was prominently featured on the front page of The Fiji Times the following day.
According to reports, a third individual in the seven-tonne truck sustained critical injuries and was in a fight for his life at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva shortly after being rescued from the accident scene. The driver of the green Toyota truck, registered as AE237, was identified only as Tulsi, who died at the scene alongside an unidentified passenger seated next to the driver.
The third passenger, Vishwa Nadan, 29, was saved by bystanders who cut through the wreckage with axes and knives. He was then transported to the Nausori Health Centre and subsequently to CWM Hospital in a private vehicle. Emergency services from the Nausori and Suva fire brigades arrived at the scene that night to extricate the bodies of the driver and his passenger from the severely damaged truck cab.
The incident occurred around 6 PM on the Koronivia flats, an area notorious for frequent accidents, often referred to as the “death stretch.” During heavy traffic, the truck, reportedly owned by Sai Transport, narrowly missed colliding with a taxi while traveling from Suva to Nausori. The taxi driver notified the Police Mobile Force based at Nasinu Eight Miles, reporting the truck’s erratic speed.
A police patrol car was set up to intercept the truck, which accelerated upon noticing the police vehicle pursuing with lights and sirens on. The chase concluded near the beginning of the “death stretch,” just beyond the entrance to the Koronivia Research Station, where witnesses reported the truck lost control.
It was drizzling at the time, making the road slippery, and the truck crashed through a barbed wire fence, launching approximately 20 meters over a gully before colliding with a breadfruit tree stump. The crash caused electrical cables to snap, resulting in a power outage in the Nausori area, with the truck’s cab crumpled into the ditch.
Eyewitness Apisalome Caviyawa, whose house was nearby, described his astonishment as he saw the truck flying overhead. Neighbors rushed to the scene, hearing the engine running and noticing black smoke rising. They could hear Mr. Nadan faintly calling for help. In a panic over a potential explosion, onlookers attempted to turn off the engine but were unable to locate the key, resorting instead to severing the exposed wires to stop the engine.
Another witness, Abdul Muktar Khan, echoed the cries for help coming from Nadan. Caviyawa, Khan, and other bystanders, along with police officers from the pursuing patrol car, utilized axes, knives, and iron bars to free Nadan, who, though conscious, was bleeding. The deceased were later removed from the scene by firefighters.