NSW man impaled in skull aided own rescue A young man has been impaled in the head with a one-metre long piece of steel at a Sydney worksite. A YOUNG man impaled in the head with a steel rod at a Sydney worksite held the projectile as crews freed him. The 19-year-old was breaking concrete with a 21-tonne excavator at the Lindfield site, in Sydney's north, on Friday morning. A one-metre piece of steel rod rocketed from the debris and embedded at least six centimetres between his eyes. Emergency crews rushed to the site about 10am (AEST) and stabilised the man, who remained conscious and coherent. He held on to the rod as crews worked to free him from the excavator. The man was transported to Royal North Shore Hospital, where surgeons worked out the best way to remove the steel rod. Ambulance Service of NSW district manager Mark Hayes said it took crews an entire hour to get the man out of the excavator. "Because we had to remove all the hand controls and the foot controls so that we could actually take him out through the front of the machine," Mr Hayes told Fairfax Radio Network. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said the man had the front window of the cab open when the incident occurred. "It was down at the time and that's how it (the rod) flung through his skull," CFMEU NSW State Secretary Brian Parker told AAP. WorkCover will investigate but the incident appears to have been a freak accident, Mr Parker said.