How did he survive that? The remarkable escape of 'extremely lucky' lorry driver in Thelwall Viaduct crash

The driver of a HGV which smashed through a safety barrier on the M6 before falling over 60 feet onto an embankment below the motorway miraculously escaped with only minor injuries.

The 'extremely lucky' driver, now confirmed to be a 56-year-old man, even managed to remove himself from the front chassis cab moments after his lorry plunged to the ground, and was preparing to be discharged from hospital less than 24 hours after the major collision.

Pictures taken in the immediate aftermath of the crash appeared to show a scene of utter devastation on Monday night (September 30). The lorry, that had been travelling in the outside lane of the M6 over the Thelwall Viaduct, careered off the carriageway before landing on an embankment between junctions 20 and 21.

READ MORE Watch the moment lorry crashes through safety barrier and falls off M6 Thelwall Viaduct

A huge emergency services presence raced to the incident at around 6.50pm and closed off the motorway, as 1,000 litres of biodiesel also leaked from the vehicle's fuel tanks.

The fire service performed a major rescue operation to reach the driver, using specialist rope equipment to abseil from the top of the bridge down to the crushed HGV to administer urgent first aid.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News about the rescue mission, Station Manager Andy Hallworth said that crews arriving at the scene were 'amazed' that the driver escaped mostly unscathed, and that they were 'expecting a much worse outcome'.

"The initial fire appliance attended the northbound carriageway and saw the HGV had left the carriageway from lane four and crashed through the safety barrier," he said.

"Our technical rope rescue unit also attended; the team are trained to rescue people from