A PENSIONER had to be cut free from his car today after he collided with a lamppost on the central reservation in Canterbury Road, near Charlesworth Drive, Birchington.

An off-duty nurse climbed into the trapped 73-year-old’s car and was trying to help him when the emergency services arrived.

Sub officer Paul Ward, from Margate Fire Station, who was one of the first members of the emergency services to arrive on the scene, said: “On our way to the accident there was a back-up of traffic all the way to King Ethelberts School. We knew that something had definitely happened.”

Firefighters cut the roof off the silver Daewoo, pinned the door open and pulled the injured man out on a back board.

The driver was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Hospital, Margate, suffering from a suspected heart attack.

Meanwhile, rush hour traffic ground to a standstill in central Broadstairs this morning after a lorry overturned at the roundabout at the junction of Bromstone Road and Ramsgate Road.