A man in Montreal is alive after the car he was driving plummeted almost three storeys and was impaled on steel rods at a construction site.

The driver, a man in his late 20s, was seriously injured but survived. Rods at the bottom of the construction pit punctured his car in several places but missed the driver, police said.

The man lost control of the car and drove through the barricades surrounding the site, near the corner of Bleury Street and René Lévesque Boulevard about 11 p.m. ET Thursday, according to police, who said the driver and the car dropped about 15 metres into a hole created for a building foundation.

"The driver was stuck in the car with severe internal injuries. Firefighters had to use a ladder to get down to the car and free the man," said Montreal police spokesman André Leclerc

Firefighters hoisted the man out of the site on a stretcher after freeing him from the mangled vehicle.

Leclerc said there were no obvious signs that the man had been drinking before the accident and police are still not sure why he drove into the hole.

"We couldn't smell any alcohol, and we couldn't see any brake marks, so we'll see what the rest of the investigation will tell us," he said. "What we know is that he went through the fence protecting the construction site. We'll take some pictures and get the car back to the surface.

The driver was in a Montreal hospital Friday, but his injuries are not believed to be life threatening.

Police said a driver in Montreal fell 15 metres at a construction site on July 14. (Radio-Canada)