ONE man is dead after the vehicle he was in was involved in an accident near Vatukarasa Village in Nadroga last night.
Director traffic SSP Mahesh Mishra confirmed this to The Fiji Times last night and said two others were in a critical condition.
"The details are sketchy at this stage as we have our team from Sigatoka on the ground conducting their investigation," SSP Mishra said.
"But we can confirm that one is dead, two in critical condition, a government vehicle was involved and one of the vehicles burned," he said.
SSP Mishra reiterated police calls for drivers to change their attitude when on the road for everyone's safety.
The road death toll to date stands at 24 compared to 25 for the same period last year.
Meanwhile, a tourist who made rescue attempts at the scene suggested that all vehicles in the country be equipped with fire extinguishers.
"I was driving down towards Sigatoka town when I saw the vehicle lying on its side on the road," the tourist who preferred anonymity said.
"A man from the vehicle was out on the roadside and as I was going towards it to try and help others inside, the vehicle exploded in a ball of fire.
I couldn't do anything because of the flames so I tried to revive the man who was on the roadside. "I did cardio pulmonary resuscitation for about 40 minutes to save the man but he died."
The tourist said he stopped some vehicles to ask for fire extinguishers but no one had it.
He said it was important that all vehicles had fire extinguishers for emergency cases.
"It's something which the relevant authorities should seriously look into," the tourist said.
When The Fiji Times team drove past the scene last night, firemen were still trying to douse off the flames from the charred government vehicle.
Firemen at the scene declined to divulge any information on the accident.