AN elderly Gundowring man was trapped in 35-degree heat for almost an hour yesterday after his vehicle rolled on the Hume Freeway.

SES crews held up an umbrella for shade and carefully removed the 78-year-old man from the Nissan Pathfinder.

Police said it appeared as though the driver of a Ford Focus had failed to give way at the Old Barnawartha Road intersection and collided with a 4WD that was travelling north on the freeway towards Wodonga at 2.30pm.

Wendy Williamson said she had been travelling on the freeway at the time of the accident.

“They collided closer to the intersection, but he (the 4WD) ended up further down the road, he would have rolled five or six times,” she said.

“It was still rolling when I pulled my car over.

“I went and raced up and tried to open the door because the car was on its side, but then some other men came.

“I was thinking ‘that car is going to stop in a minute, it’s going to stop’ but it didn’t.”

Two women, who were passengers in the 4WD, were helped from the vehicle soon after the crash.

Ambulance Victoria Wodonga team manager Mike Fuery said two were taken to Albury hospital and two were taken to Wodonga hospital.

“We have four casualties, but all the people have mostly sustained soft tissue injuries; so muscular aches, strains and some lacerations but nothing life threatening at this stage,” Mr Fuery said.

“The gentleman in the car, we are treating him very carefully because of his age and because the car is on its side there is the potential for him to have fractures in his neck, so we are just being very careful with the way we handle him.”

Northbound traffic was rerouted via Old Barnawartha Road to Moloney Drive for about two hours.

The notorious intersection has a long history of accidents including a collision involving a train and a car in 2010 and car accidents in 2004 and 2007.

Acting Sgt Mal Burdett from Wodonga highway patrol reminded drivers to be vigilant.

“We’ve highlighted to locals that this intersection is one that you really need to pay attention to and we ask them to pay respect to the type of intersection this is,” Sgt Burdett said.

Any witnesses to the collision have been asked to contact Wodonga police on (02) 6049 2600 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.