Two teenage girls have been injured, one critically, when the car they were passengers in smashed into a concrete pillar on the Monash Freeway in Melbourne's south-east.
The car, which was being driven by a man aged in his 40s, was travelling inbound when it veered onto the median strip and struck a pylon about 12:15am.
One of two teenage girls in the back seat of the car received life-threatening injuries, while the other girl was seriously injured.
The driver was taken to hospital, where he was in a critical but stable condition.
A woman, also aged in her 40s, was also taken to hospital for observation.
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade's Commander Greg Badrock said firefighters had to cut three of the occupants free from the wreckage.
"[We] had to work with the most time-critical and then remove the other occupants but this was difficult to do, it took some time," he said.
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Andrew Lawrence said the car had mounted the wire rope barrier and travelled "a distance" before it hit the concrete pillar.
"It is too early to say what the cause actually is before we get to speak to the occupants, they're quite seriously injured themselves," he said.
The Monash Freeway was closed to inbound traffic between Wellington Road and Springvale Road while police investigated the cause of the crash.
Two outbound lanes were also closed along the same stretch of freeway, before all lanes were reopened about 7:15am.
