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by PATRICK GALLAHUE, LARRY CELONA and MARSHA KRANES
A woman who was impaled yesterday by a 2-inch-thick metal pole in a horrific Brooklyn crash came out of five hours of surgery — and is miraculously expected to survive.
At least six feet of the 15-foot-long pole ripped through Sherland Chandler-Torres' chest near her left shoulder — missing her heart by inches.
"It's a miracle," said her shaken husband, Anthony Torres, of Jamaica, Queens. "Thank God.
"When I was told that thing was lodged in her, I freaked out. I thought she would be dead.
"It missed her heart, her spine, her head," he said incredulously.
Chandler-Torres, 35, a mom of three and stepmother to three of her husband's kids, was heading to a doctor's appointment when the horror began at 9:40 a.m.
Her minivan, a Toyota Sienna, was struck by a Subaru Outback coming in the opposite direction on Avenue J as she crossed Utica Avenue in Flatbush.
The collision sent her car careening onto the sidewalk, where it hit a brick wall, continued down the block and smashed into a low chain-link fence at East 49th Street. The long horizontal metal pole on top of the fence crashed through her windshield, speared its way through her left shoulder just below the collarbone and continued on through the back of the driver's seat into the passenger seat behind her, witnesses said.
Homeowner Floyd Lalgie was sitting on his back porch when he heard a "boom," looked up and saw Chandler-Torres impaled on his fence.
"I tried to help, but I couldn't pull the iron out. It was too long. I grabbed the pole and she said, 'No,' " he said. Retired firefighter Bob Bennett, who lives in the area, rushed over.
"She was conscious, but not screaming. She looked like she was in shock," he said.
Police and firefighters sliced off the roof of Chandler-Torres' car and cut off both ends of the pole, leaving a two-foot section in her body before rushing her to Kings County Hospital.
"She's a fighter," her husband said after doctors removed the pole. A hospital spokesman said Chandler-Torres was in critical but stable condition after surgery.
Gary Stewart, the other driver involved in the accident, hit a parked car before his 1998 Subaru came to a halt, but escaped without injury, witnesses said.
Stewart, 35, of East Flatbush, claimed Chandler-Torres was speeding and ran a red light when they crashed. But at least one witness told police Stewart blew the light. Torres, 47, defended his wife's driving, noting that they are both school bus drivers.
No arrests were made.
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