A TEENAGER is fighting for his life after the car he was driving was involved in a high speed crash with a street light.

Firefighters raced to free the 18-year-old from the wreckage of the white Citroen Saxo car, fearing that leaking petrol could set fire to an electric street light that the vehicle had ploughed into.

The teenager is understood to have suffered head injuries and a badly broken leg and is currently undergoing emergency surgery at Salford Royal Hospital.

Police have said that he remains in a "critical condition".

The smash happened at the junction of Moss Bank Way and Captains Clough Road at about 6am this morning.

The white Citroen Saxo had smashed into a street light and flipped onto its side, trapping the driver.

Fire crews performed a rapid extraction procedure to get the driver out of the vehicle.

The North West Ambulance's specialist HART team were on the scene and took the unconscious driver to hospital.

The carriageway was closed from the Chorley Old Road roundabout up to the site of the accident this morning but has since reopened.

Arthur Pickup, aged 75, has lives near to the crash site and regularly runs along Moss Bank Way.

He said: “In all my time of living around here I have never seen an accident that was this bad — this is by far the worst we have had around here.

“When I came along the road this morning and saw the wreckage, I thought that whoever was in the car would not have stood a chance, it looked really bad.

“It is difficult to know what has happened, you can see bits of the car really far from where it has crashed — I hope he pulls through.”

A spokesman for the fire service said: “When we arrived on the scene we were concerned about the unstable street light resting on the car and the leaking petrol — so we immediately isolated the petrol leak before we used cutting equipment so that the driver could be extracted as quickly as possible.”

Greater Manchester Police is asking for any witnesses with information to get in touch.

The serious collision investigation Unit can be contacted on 0161 8564745.