Driver trapped for an hour after horror smash on the M7
A TRUCK driver is lucky to be alive after a crash involving multiple vehicles which left him pinned inside his crumpled chamber for almost an hour while emergency services toiled to free him.
NSW
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A TRUCK driver is lucky to be alive after miraculously surviving a crash involving multiple vehicles which left him pinned inside the crumpled chamber of his truck for almost an hour while emergency services toiled to free him.
The chaotic crash occurred at about 12:30pm on Friday on the M7, Eastern Creek, at the bustling junction of the M4 known as the Lighthorse Interchange, and involved four trucks and four cars.
At the scene, emergency services found a severely injured 32-year-old truck driver trapped inside his vehicle by his arm.
So serious were the truck driver’s injuries that a CareFlight helicopter was forced to land on the southbound lanes of the M7 to treat him immediately after he was pulled from his pulverised vehicle.
The injured man continued to be treated for chest and upper limb injuries by the CareFlight medical team in a road ambulance which took him to Westmead Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition.
A woman in her 20s was also transported to Westmead Hospital for facial and abdominal injuries but was later discharged.
NSW Ambulance paramedics also assessed six other patients at the scene for minor injuries.
A police spokesperson called the incident “very serious” and said that there had been “debris everywhere”.
The M7 remained closed southbound until just before 3pm with motorists being diverted onto Old Wallgrove Rd and Wallgrove Rd while the Crash Investigation Unit conducted their investigation.
Traffic stretched back for up to 6km during the incident, with southbound queues reaching as far back as Richmond Rd, while emergency services worked feverishly to clear the mangled wreckages.
A Transport Management Centre spokesperson said all debris and damaged vehicles were completely cleared by 2:40pm and that traffic was no longer backed up by 3:30pm.
Residents and witnesses were stunned that the truck driver wasn’t killed when images of his battered vehicle surfaced online.
“How the hell do you survive that?” Dave Hely from Blayney said.
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Drivers heading southbound were diverted onto Wallgrove road while those stuck on the motorway came to a standstill for more than an hour in a six-kilometre queue.