A BURNING transit van crashed into a 17-year-old's first car yesterday, just days after he started driving it.

Jonathan Lynch-Roche saved up to buy the Volkswagen Polo by working at Tesco but stood and watched as a truck engulfed in flames crawled slowly towards it smashing into the front.

He said: “It was quite far away at first and I just thought it will be fine, it will just go straight, and then I thought what do I do now?

“The people who owned the vehicle tried to stop it moving and they were jumping in front of it, otherwise it would just have kept going into someone's house.”

The Ford Transit truck was parked by his home in Long Elmes when the blaze started, at around 2.15pm, destroying two sofas stored on the back of it.

The firefighters who eventually put it out believe the clutch may have burned through, and the lorry started rolling down the hill towards the junction with High Road, Wealdstone.

But a man watching the blaze from the street leaped in front of the burning vehicle, trying to stop it.

The lorry turned towards the side of the road where it eventually came to a stop, helped by Jonathan's car.

He cannot afford to buy a new one, and his mother Maria thinks the damaged one will cost more to repair than it is worth.

But he hopes to continue driving it, despite damage done by the fire, as long as it passes road safety checks.

Maria said: “For a 17-year-old who's just got his first car and it's burnt, it's just so unfair. With how much it will cost to fix, it is just not going to be worth it because it's an old car.

“We just think it's fate. He's just not meant to have that car, it's just unlucky.”

Jonathan passed his test in mid-November and took several weeks to sort out insurance for the Polo, before he could start using it.