A DRIVER cheated death when he spent four hours suspended upside down inside his wrecked car with his body impaled on a long metal pole.

Daniel Lang, from Hanbury, was left trapped with his head just inches above water after the vehicle spun off a lonely lane, struck a tree and ended up in a ditch in the middle of the night.

In the inky blackness, while waiting for help to arrive, he found two paracetamol tablets in the glove box which he swallowed to try to ease the searing pain in his body.

Amazingly, when emergency crews arrived at the scene in Tyrell's Lane, Lower Bentley, at 3am last Thursday they found the 22-year-old, from Monkswood Farm Cottage, fully conscious. His Vauxhall Astra had slid off the road at around 11pm and turned upside down into the water- filled ditch.

The impact thrust a two-inch diameter metal pole supported three feet off the ground by stout concrete posts set alongside the lane, through the car's bodywork.

Alec Mackie, a Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service spokesman, said later: "The metal bar had pierced the car and went straight through the driver from hip to hip and out the other side."

The alarm was raised at 3am by two men driving past who spotted Mr Lang's plight, although his mother said later another car had passed about midnight, but failed to stop.

Rescuers stabilised the car and practised cutting a similar length of pole nearby before attempting the highly delicate operation of freeing him. He was released at around 4.30am and taken to the Alexandra Hospital with part of the pole still embedded in his body.

Bromsgrove GP Dr John Hall, a member of the "Flying Doctor" service called to the scene, said the rescue had been a team effort involving all emergency services.

On Monday Daniel's mother said her son was "very lucky" and in a "stable" condition. She added her son, a popular young man, had only recently launched his own mobile tyre fitting service and was building up a healthy customer base.

"Recovery will be a long, slow business," she said.