SOUTH BRUNSWICK — A driver tried to throw her cigarette out of her car window, but the still-burning tobacco fell inside the vehicle, setting it on fire, police said.

At 9 a.m. Monday, police responded to a 911 call of a car burning on Bard Drive North and found a 1998 Honda Civic fully engulfed in flames.

The 19-year-old driver, from nearby Rocky Hill, told police she had been smoking a cigarette moments before the fire and tried throw it out the window. Moments later, she realized she missed when she felt heat on her back and saw the car fill with smoke, police said.

She pulled over and escaped without injury, but the car was destroyed in the fire, police said. The Monmouth Junction Fire Department in South Brunswick extinguished the blaze.

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