Melbourne trad Paul Weiser was lucky to be alive after pole impaled his windshield

A tradie says he is lucky to be alive after a metal pole smashed through his windscreen in a terrifying near miss.

Melbourne underwater plumber Paul Weiser heard an “almighty bang” early Wednesday morning while navigating the dark and slippery conditions in Patterson Lakes in the city’s southeast.

He initially thought he had been in an accident until he stopped and got out of his van.

A two-metre-long steel pole had smashed through the windshield and pierced the interior, narrowly missing the driver’s seat.

“I’m like, ‘What the hell happened?’” Mr. Weiser recalled Seven news.

‘It came out of nowhere! I didn’t even see it.’

‘It was literally four inches from my head. I (was) like ‘holy crap!’

Despite pieces of glass flying into his face and eyes, Mr Weiser was unharmed but left shaken by the terrifying ordeal.

He’s grateful he was holding his coffee at that moment.

Otherwise he would have been impaled, as he usually leans his arm on the center console.

“If I hadn’t had the coffee in my hand, the post would have just gone through my head,” he said.

“It’s full, I’m looking at (the photos) now and I’m saying ‘Oh my god’.”

‘Happy. I’m very lucky to be alive.’

The pole (pictured inside the van) missed Paul Weiser in the driver’s seat by several inches

A woman driving behind him told Mr. Weiser afterward that she, too, had been hit by something that she thought had fallen from a truck in front of them.

“I said, ‘I didn’t see a truck,’” he said.

“She says, ‘Oh, it was way ahead.'”

Mr. Weiser has now had his windshield replaced and is on the road again.

But he’s a lot more cautious after the terrifying near miss.

“I think it was a one-off, but this morning on Eastlink I pulled out of another ute that had stuff on it,” he said.

“I think today I’m a little more aware of (a load not being) tight.”

Paul Weiser (photo) lived to tell the story of his terrifying ordeal

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