A man has died in a freak accident after a tree fell on his car as he drove on a highway near Wollongong during windy weather.
The man was travelling on the Princes Motorway near the Picton Rd overpass just after 9.15am on Wednesday when the 20-metre gum tree fell and crashed onto the cab of his ute, trapping him, police said.
He died while paramedics were treating him at the scene.
Police confirmed they have identified the man but won't release details until later in the day.
An SES spokesman said winds had reached up to 100km/h around the Illawarra region on Wednesday with crews attending numerous jobs about felled trees and fallen branches.
A motorist driving behind the ute on Wednesday witnessed the event.
"I saw out of the corner of my eye the tree starting to fall down, then it just fell straight on top of the [ute]," Robert Tindall told the Illawarra Mercury.
"It was like it happened in slow motion, then bang."
