Pole impales windshield, narrowly misses woman's head

WOBURN, Mass. -- A Massachusetts woman escaped a potentially deadly freak accident when a pole crashed through the windshield of her SUV, narrowly missing her head.

Police said 60-year-old Liz Sawyer suffered a medical emergency while driving and blacked out, WCVB reports.

Her vehicle veered off the road, hit a parked car, took out a cement light pole and slammed into a chain link fence a few blocks from her home.

The top rail of that fence - a metal pole about 8 ft. long - impaled the windshield.

"It went right through the middle. If you look where the head rest is, it was sitting right there. It was scary," Phil Hardcastle told.

Hardastle's wife and three grandchildren were in a backyard pool about 40 ft. away from the crash site.

"Missed her by not even a couple inches. It grazed her elbow. So we're lucky," said Stephen Sawyer, Liz's husband. "Thank God we're getting up and going to see her at the hospital tomorrow - instead of, you know, the worst."

Other than a bruised elbow, Liz Sawyer was not hurt. Doctors have not determined what caused her to black out.