WOOL, England, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A British truck driver was arrested Friday and faces charges of trying to kill his estranged wife by driving a tanker loaded with kerosene into her house.
Hugh Billington was in custody and was expected to be charged with attempted murder, The Sun reported.
His wife, Christine Billington, 53, ran from the bungalow in Wool, Dorset, when she saw the truck heading toward the house, the Daily Mirror said. The house caught fire after the impact and sustained heavy damage.
Darren Fletcher, a railway worker who had just walked his daughter to her elementary school, got into the cab of the truck and backed it away from the house, possibly averting an explosion. He suffered smoke inhalation.
A neighbor, Malcolm Grant, said Christine Billington knocked on his door.
"When she got to our house she was hysterical. She wasn't injured but was in a real state," he said. "She was in shock and thought she had lost everything."
Neighbors said Christine Billington told them she and her husband were ending their 31-year marriage. The house was on the market.
