A MAN was killed and a female passenger injured in a single-vehicle accident at Doyalson on Saturday.
Police praised two bystanders who helped extinguish a fire in the car's engine bay after the accident.
Their actions helped to save the life of a 19-year-old woman, police said.
"It could have been a lot worse," Tuggerah Lakes Police Inspector Chris Wellfare said.
"They fought back the flames."
It took rescue workers about 30 minutes to cut the female passenger out of the vehicle.
She was flown to John Hunter Hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
Ambulance officers declared the driver, a Central Coast man, dead at the scene.
The accident happened when a southbound Holden Calais ran off the Pacific Highway and hit a tree about 1.45am on Saturday, Inspector Wellfare said.
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