Woman impaled on bars

Claire van Schaik was treated at the scene for 45 minutes. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

Doctors took almost four hours to remove a set of handlebars from the stomach of a cyclist who was impaled in a crash in Hawke's Bay.

Claire van Schaik fell on to her handlebars while trying to avoid a 4WD which she said turned into her path on Napier Rd in Havelock North.

The 41-year-old was delivered to the hospital in an ambulance with the handlebars attached to her body after the incident at 9.30am on Friday.

Surgeons didn't remove them until about 2.30pm.

After being discharged from Hawke's Bay Hospital yesterday afternoon, van Schaik said she was lucky to be alive: "It is a miracle," she said from her Havelock North home.

Police praised van Schaik's bravery, as well as the actions of two women who came to her aid before emergency services arrived.

Her friend Natalie Rogers, who was yesterday looking after the heavily medicated woman, said: "This has been horrific. Claire is in a lot of pain as you can imagine. She ended up with her handlebar a good 10 centimetres through her groin basically up to her waistline.

"This incident is still pretty raw for her at the moment - she is still trying to make sense of it all." Rogers said the the car apparently failed to give way and her friend got knocked off her bike.

Police Sergeant Clint Adamson said: "She handled it very well. Remarkably well, actually.

"She wasn't yelling, she was obviously in shock but there was certainly no screaming or anything from her."

Adamson said police expected to lay charges against the driver once van Schaik was well enough to be interviewed.

Rogers said it was too soon to say if van Schaik would get back on a bike.

Witnesses at the scene said fire, police and ambulance staff spent 45 minutes working on the woman before taking her to hospital.

One witness, who didn't want to be named, said cutting equipment was used to remove the handlebar from the bike.

"They were bringing all this cutting gear ... it made me feel quite sick," she said. Another woman said bystanders rushed to the woman's aid.

- Additional reporting Hawke's Bay Today