The three-vehicle crash happened just after 7.30pm Friday, August 30 about two kilometres north of the Sussex Inlet Road intersection.

The accident happened at the southern end of where new safety cabling has been installed to divide the highway.

Police have said the man killed in the accident was a front-seat passenger in the vehicle and was a foreign national in his 80s.

It is believed he was Peruvian.

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Lake Illawarra Crash Investigation Unit is investigating the accident which is believed to have been head-on, with a third vehicle also involved.

Numerous emergency services attended the crash, including six Ambulance NSW crews and two Toll NSW Ambulance Rescue Helicopters, one from Wollongong and another from Sydney, Fire and Rescue NSW and numerous local Rural Fire Service crews.

Five patients were treated at the scene.

A 57-year-old female was transported to Shoalhaven District Hospital in a stable condition with minor injuries.

Four other patients were treated in the vehicle in which the man died.

A 55-year-old female was airlifted to St George Hospital with head and chest injuries.

A 75-year-old female had to be released from the rear of the vehicle by NSW Ambulance Rescue personnel with the assistance of Fire and Rescue NSW crews and was flown to Prince of Wales Hospital with suspected arm fractures.

A 14-year-old male was also airlifted to the Sydney Children's Hospital at Prince of Wales with suspected chest and abdominal injuries.

Traffic on the highway was affected in both directions for almost five hours, with contraflow traffic conditions put in place around the accident scene just after midnight.

At one stage traffic was being stopped at Wandean Road at Jerrawangala in the north and Sussex Inlet Road in the south and turned around.

Just after 10pm traffic detours, for light vehicles only, were put in place via Turpentine Road through to Braidwood and down the Kings Highway to Batemans Bay, which added a 170km detour for the majority of vehicles.

Just after midnight, stop flow traffic control was put in place to allow a single lane of traffic past the crash scene.

Police and crash investigators completed their inquiries and the highway reopened fully to traffic at 2am.