A man has been taken to hospital in a critical condition after he was impaled with a large fence post during a single-vehicle crash in the Hunter's wine region on Friday morning.
Emergency crews were called to the scene at Pokolbin about 6.30am where they found a car that had veered off the road, into a ditch, and crashed into a fence.
The driver, a 51-year-old, was trapped in the vehicle with serious injuries including multiple fractures across his body.
The Newcastle Herald understands a large wooden fence post went through the car's windscreen and impaled the man on impact, leaving almost two metres of post on one side of his body and about one metre on the other.
The Herald also understands the man remained conscious as emergency crews used a saw to cut parts of the fence post in order to free him from the vehicle.
NSW Ambulance paramedics and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter's critical care team treated the man at the scene, before he was air-lifted to John Hunter Hospital with what the rescue chopper service described as "multiple traumatic injuries".
NSW Ambulance duty operations manager Inspector Skye Gordon said the scene that emergency crews met on arrival was "quite confronting".
"It was a really difficult set of circumstances to work under," she said.
"There was extensive damage to his chest and shoulder where the post had become impaled. We had to work closely with all the emergency services to assess the best and safest way to remove him from the vehicle.
"The extrication was quite lengthy and complex. We had to take our time and slowly remove sections of the fence at a time.
"We were able to work on stabilising him in the car before moving him out of the vehicle for more in-depth treatment. We managed to give him life-saving treatment at the scene before he was airlifted to hospital where he will undergo surgery."
It is not clear how long the driver had been trapped in the wreck before a worker at a nearby vineyard discovered him and called triple zero.
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