Quote:A NEW Zealand man is in critical condition after being impaled by a canoe that smashed through his windscreen, trapping him in his truck.

The truck - a fully-loaded car transporter - was following another vehicle carrying a number of canoes down a highway in Levin, at the bottom of the North Island, when one came loose.

"It flew up in the air, through the windscreen and impaled him to the seat,'' Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter pilot Fergus MacLachlan told The Dominion Post today.

"He was trapped in the cab."

Mr MacLachlan said the driver, a 64-year-old North Island man, drove off the road "luckily to the left and not the right" and across some railway tracks, which were blocked while the scene was cleared.

"He was lucky again there that there wasn't a train coming.

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"It was a nasty accident."

Levin Volunteer Fire Brigade crew cut the man free from his truck before he was flown to Palmerston North Hospital.

"He's in a critical condition," a hospital spokesman said.