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North Carolina Driver Impaled by Fence's Pole During Storm

Heavy rain and winds in Huntersville, North Carolina, blew a gate open and led part of it to impale a woman just as she was driving near it.
A car struck a gate and part of the gate penetrated the car and impaled the driver near the stadium at Hopewell High School in North Carolina. The yellow pole is seen here.
A car struck a gate and part of the gate penetrated the car and impaled the driver near the stadium at Hopewell High School in North Carolina. The yellow pole is seen here. Huntersville Fire Department

A North Carolina woman was impaled by one side of a two-pronged gate Friday night when heavy winds blew the gate open and she accidentally drove into it, Huntersville rescue officials said. The unidentified driver, a Hopewell High School security guard, was leaving a rained-out football game at the school just as the fencing flew open. But before she could stop, a prong pierced the headlight of her car, went through the engine and speared her "above the hip," said Bill Suthard, a Huntersville Fire Department spokesman. “It swung and it was aimed head-on to her at the exact point of time that she ran into the gate,” Suthard told NBC News. “I don’t think we could ever replicate it.”

The woman was removed by Huntersville officials with the help of Hopewell athletic trainers, and then transported to Carolinas Medical Center Main in Charlotte, about 20 miles away, the fire department said. The woman's injuries were "life threatening," said Mecklenburg EMS spokesman Lester Olivia.

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— Elisha Fieldstadt