Woman impaled on galvanised pipe

The daughter of a Featherston woman impaled by a galvanised pipe in a crash on State Highway 2 in Tauherenikau on Tuesday says her mother "is lucky to be alive".
Susan Keast, 62, was driving south when she crashed through two fences into a concrete power pole and was impaled by the galvanised pipe that was surgically removed at Wairarapa Hospital on Tuesday night.
The 4.12pm crash left Mrs Keast with a broken pelvis, leg and hip as well as extensive muscle and tissue damage after the pipe entered her left hip and exited her buttock.
Heather Keast said yesterday that her mother is in a stable condition and was having scans to examine whether there was any further internal damage after her surgery.
"She was awake and talking with us today but she is in an awful lot of pain where the pipe went through," she said.
"She's very, very lucky to be alive."
Mrs Keast doesn't remember what caused the crash and there are no skid marks on the roadside, she said.
"We got home from the hospital at 1am after staying to see how the surgery went.
"My brother went to see the accident scene but I couldn't bear to see it," Ms Keast said.
"We don't know what's ahead for us at the moment. We've had a lucky 12 hours."
She said the family rushed to be by Mrs Keast's side when they were told about the crash.
"My brother has come over from Dannevirke. Dad's doing OK, he's just going through the motions at the moment," she said.
Featherston fire chief Colin McKenna said he had never witnessed such a "horrific scene" in all his years of service.
"There was a fair amount of blood in the car and the vehicle was actually on fire when we arrived.
"There were flames coming out from under the bonnet and there was a guy there trying to put it out with a fire extinguisher but he wasn't having much luck."
Mr McKenna said the fire possibly started when she hit the concrete pole, which may have caused a leak under the engine.
Featherston and Greytown fire crews cut Mrs Keast out of her Mitsubishi vehicle in under an hour. "She was pinned to the seat with the pipe," he said.
"We had to cut the pipe in the front where it had come through the dashboard and then cut behind her back where it had exited her body and gone through the seat."
Mrs Keast was "talking and lucid" while the fire crew cut her free, he said.
"We called Powerco as soon as we arrived because there were power lines down and we said it was urgent."
"We should have waited until they came, because the power was live, but it was a case of making one of those tough calls and we decided we needed to get her out of there."
Mr McKenna said last year Featherston fire brigade had attended the most-ever crashes, that was until Tuesday.
"We had our centennial last year and recorded 152.
"This was number 153 for this year so we've really had a big one so far in terms of callouts."
Masterton police Senior Sergeant Warwick Burr said the road was closed for some time while emergency services cleared the road and traffic was diverted down No. 1 Line.
The serious crash unit is investigating the cause of the crash, he said.