Amazing escape as lorry plunges off flyover from one motorway on to another

The scene after a HGV driver had a lucky escape after his lorry left the flyover on the M42 and crashed onto the M6 toll near Coleshill in Warwickshire (Shelley Brumpton/PA Wire)

A lorry driver had a lucky escape when his HGV plunged 30ft (9m) off a flyover on to a motorway following a crash, police have said.

The 55-year-old driver was travelling on the M42 northbound carriageway near Coleshill in Warwickshire just before 6.30pm last night when his lorry is believed to have collided with a Ford Mondeo car, also travelling north on the motorway, Warwickshire Police said.

The incident caused the lorry to jack-knife across all three lanes of the motorway and topple over the edge of the flyover on to the M6 Toll northbound some 30ft (9m) below.

The driver was taken by air ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where he is receiving treatment for leg and ankle injuries.

The 49-year-old driver of the Ford Mondeo was not injured in the collision.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said the drivers, along with other road users, had an "amazing escape".

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "Ambulance crews responded to a road traffic collision following reports of a lorry coming off an M42 flyover and landing on the northbound M6 Toll road.

"Crews treated the lorry driver, a man in his 50s, for serious lower leg fractures, neck and back pain and facial lacerations.

"The driver crawled out of his badly damaged cab and was treated at the scene by paramedics before being airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for further assessment."

Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to contact Warwickshire Police on 01926 415415.

PA